


how high, how high?

by livennadin



Category: Voltron: Legendary Defender
Genre: Alternate Universe - Modern with Magic, Fallen Angels, Fluff and Angst, Gay Keith (Voltron), Heaven is a chill realm, Hurt/Comfort, Insecure Lance (Voltron), Kinda... Angels are a thing, Lance is an ornithologist, M/M, Minor Character Death, Miscommunication, Other Additional Tags to Be Added, Slow Burn, bi lance, idk how to tag, other characters to be added - Freeform
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2017-12-08
Updated: 2018-03-12
Packaged: 2019-02-12 05:29:31
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 8
Words: 37,365
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/12952329
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/livennadin/pseuds/livennadin
Summary: Lance was an ornithologist. Birds... were basically his life. He studied them, knew about them more than anyone else.But would all of his studies help him with a fallen angel? He was basically part bird when you squint, right?orIn which falling from heaven is not the only fall Keith will face.He is yet to fall in love... With a human.





	1. Midnight Shift

**Author's Note:**

> hello! 
> 
> if you are scared of earthquakes like i am, be wary. the word is used multiple times but it is not the case. it's just keith crashing down on earth.

“Shit!” Lance cursed as the exotic bird’s beak tore through the latex glove he had on and broke the skin. He carefully maneuvered his hand that carried the bird back into the enormous cage.

“I feed you,” he let the bird go. The sound of wings clapping filled his ears.

“I treat you, i sing you to sleep, this is how you repay me?” Lance exclaimed as he hold up his fresh, bleeding cut and inspected it.

“Though,” he looked up to the cage again, a smile on his face. “Me singing you guys to sleep might be the reason behind your anger.”  
Chuckling to his own joke, he moved inside his workspace in familiarity to clean and bandage his small cut.

 

Lance was an ornithologist. Birds... were basically his life. He studied them, knew about them more than anyone else. He was also a vet, he treated them when he needed to. He also, was the head of the research on birds that were in danger of extinction. All these took the most of his time.

“But you like my singing, don’t you Blue?” he baby talked to blue macaw watching him from her perch hanging from the ceiling. Oh, also, Lance was the loving owner of Blue, she was the best company in his eyes. Blue floated down and perched herself on Lance’s shoulder with practiced ease.

 

He gathered the labeled blood samples and proceeded to the next room with different kinds of birds in cages.

“Hi loves! How are y’all doin’?” He was greeted by a choir of whistles, chirps and flaps of wings.

“Good? Okay, great!” He settled down the samples and dug his hand into the pocket of his blue apron and fished his phone out. There was a voicemail from Pidge. He placed his phone on the table as well and started listening to his friend as he stuck labels on new, empty sample tubes.

“Hey Lance, ‘sup? By the way i- uh, didn’t want a selfie of you when i asked for a picture. I actually wanted a pic of Blue to show her to Matt-“  
Matt’s voice cut in: “Hi Lance!” So he was visiting Pidge.

“Anyways, Matt’s here for the week and Hunk’s taking us out on dinner tonight... Wanna come? I mean- it’s okay if you can’t. I know you’re busy and this is kinda last minute... Let me know if you’re coming. Bye!” Pidge’s voice filled the room and vanished in half a minute.

Lance chuckled to himself. Pidge was one of his best friends, she was currently working in a communication company. C? C sharp? Jawa? Python? C++? You name it, she codes it. And Matt was her brother. He normally lived two hours away, was studying his second university. Yeah, he was cool like that.

 

Hunk, his other best friend, on the other hand was a chef in one of those big, shiny hotels and was deadly respected in the kitchen. Lance once witnessed interns asking his permission to peel some potatoes.

If Hunk was taking them out on dinner, it means he was going to sneak them into the hotel and serve them food even their combined salaries couldn’t afford.

It was a shame Lance was going to miss it. He called Pidge back, but settled for a voicemail when the answering machine was the only one responding.

 

“Heyyy Pigeon! What do you mean you didn’t want my picture? I thought you missed my handsome face!” His eyes drifted to the Frozen band-aid on his finger. It had Elsa on it. “But i’m pretty busy tonight. I’ll start taking samples from the promising subjects. But i’ll drop by... Let’s say... Wednesday? Yeah, keep me updated about your night out. Love ya, bye!” He put his phone in his pocket once again. Normally, he should have left it in his office but his friends demanded they must be able to check up oh him after his... confession.

“Alrighty, let’s start!” he said to Blue and got brand new gloves over his golden sparkling cinnamon skin.

 

 

Hours chased each other on the clock Lance had in his office wall. He cracked his knuckles one more time. Sighing, he looked up from the reports of the subjects’ vitals his colleagues gathered for him. It was midnight. Lance closed his eyes and breathed in deeply. The sounds of seconds ticking away and Blue happily nibbling on her palm nuts were the only things existed for a moment.

“Should we head h-“ Lance started as he opened his blue blue eyes. But the loudest crash of a window breaking and ground shaking swallowed any previous worries he had. The whole ordeal sent Blue flying erraticaly, causing her to hit herself onto the walls.

“Blue!” Lance stood up shakily. Earthquake was all he could think. _Earthquake. Blue. Other birds._ “Blue!” Panicked, he held out his arms as he beckoned the macaw to himself. Blue flew down towards Lance and he grabbed his bird friend, throwing both her and himself under the desk. He held Blue close to his chest that trembled with every rapid beat of his heart.

_Earthquake._ Was it a pioneer? Was a bigger one coming? Birds all over the facility were panicking, yelping, flinging themselves in their cages, hitting the cage walls. He could hear it from up in his office.

Lance squeezed his eyes shut. His mind was blank with fear, only some thoughts appearing like black ink dropped in water, corrupting all of it. Finding shelter was the first drop of ink. He had done it. The static in his mind shifted again then, he couldn’t let the birds fend for themselves. He pushed himself out from under the table and out of his office. His heartbeat was ringing in his ears, he could feel Blue’s heart of a drum between his sweaty palms. 

As he was about to run to the first level where the cage doors were located, he saw a faint golden light coming from the centre of the facility. The vertical ray of light was disappearing to the sky where the top windows were shattered. Or the light was coming from the sky down to the facility. _So, it wasn’t an earthquake?_

Sliding and coming to a stop, Lance grew aware of his raspy breaths for air. Meaning if he can hear them then his heart slowed down a bit.

Blue was putty in his hands with fear but when he forced himself to listen. The other birds sounded like they’ve calmed down.

“It’s not an earthquake.” He whispered to himself as if he needed to hear it to believe it, as if his heart rate would pick up on his words. The birds would have acted weird because they would have felt it if it was an earthquake. He was with them all day, none acted off.

 

So he tasked himself to take deeper, slower breaths and he rearreanged his hold on Blue. Held her more delicately. And for a split second he thought he saw movement where the mysterious golden light touched the ground.

_This is probably a bad, **bad** idea. _ Gulping, he made his way to the light, placed Blue on his shoulder, trusting her training to not fly off.

And he started making out things as he stepped closer to- whatever it was. Firstly, the light was fading slowly. There were feathers- a lot of feathers. Lance felt his stomach sink. Were they his birds? Dead on the ground? Impossible. They were all in their cages. 

But nothing could match the horror he felt as he saw a pale human arm in the rubble. _No, no, no. No._ Everyone’s shift was over, right? Researchers, janitors, vets... They’ve all left. Right?

Lance didn’t realize that he started running until he heard shards of glass scrunching under his fast steps.

He was still running the schedule on his head. No one must have stayed this late. It had been hours since the last person’s shift was over.

 

And then, the arm moved.

Lance also didn’t realize he was screaming until Blue irretably bit the shell of his ear.

The arm moved back into the rubble just to be accompanied by the other arm in pushing everything away. Lance's heart started hammering his ribcage again. Slowly, a head rose from between hunks of cement and shards of glass. Lance moved forward to hold the arms and assist the person out. That is, until the said person opened his eyes and urgently pushed Lance away. He was surprisingly strong. 

“I’m here to help, are you oka-aaaAAaaAAAAh OH MY GOD!”

Everything was fine until the person made his way out of the rubble. Legs popped out from amongst cement dust and shakily stood up. It was understandable to a point. It really was... But the person had _wings._ Two giant, owl like patterned wings –one awfully crooked- was attached to the person. Now that he was standing clear on top of the rubble, surprisingly in one piece and –despite some cuts and the crooked wing- okay, Lance took his time to gape at him. There wasn't much he could do anyways.

He looked mostly human. He had pale skin that shined under the unnatural golden light. Fine, toned muscles decorated his lean body. Lance could tell because all he wearing was a white dress like tunic. It was sleeveless, it was oversized for him, it was disheveled and it finished on his mid-thighs. His face though, he was handsome on an unearthly level. Soft, raven black hair dusted his forehead, nearly reaching his glinting purple –or were they indigo?- eyes. His wings were the finest of beiges and browns, softest these colors can ever be. The only imperfect thing about him was his mullet. 

 

Then the... bird-man? moved out of the mess and the crater he made, his face scrunched with pain. Lance took a shaky step back because honestly what was even happening?

Still, the mullet-bird-man seemingly had enough energy in him to look at Lance as if he was the one with wings. As if Lance was the only strange thing in this scenario.

“Are you...” he started. His voice was just the right amount of deep. Had the right amount of feeling, vibrated through his throat with ease. “...a human?” he cautiously asked.

 

“Are you not?” Lance found himself in defence mode. “I mean... obviously you’re not.” The brunette gulped. “I-i mean i _am_ human.” He let out a shaky breath. “Why... are you... not?” He formed the question hesitantly.

Mullet wrinkled his nose and spoke with a slight furrow of thick eyebrows:

“Are you asking me why i’m not human? I didn’t choose to get born in heaven.” 

Lance held a hand up to stop him from saying anything else.

“Heaven is real?” He asked, voice cracking only two times.

“I’m the proof that it is.” Mullet answered with a subtle yet graceful pride.

 

_Okay... What the fuck?_

“Did you fall from heaven? Did it hurt?” Lance felt a blush creep onto his face. “Like, literally, i’m not trying to use a pickup line on you.” He quickly added.

Mullet’s eyebrows furrowed even more. A pang of shame stabbed through Lance's chest. He made that angelic features look all angry.

 

“Don’t humans know about angels? And no, i fell from a realm high above earth and crashed down on hard ground. _Of course_ it didn’t hurt.” He rolled his eyes. _What kind of angel..._

Lance blinked once as the initial shock faded away and covered his nose and mouth with the collar of his apron and held blue to his chest with his other hand.

“You might have something contagious! This is a sterile facility!” He exclaimed as he hastily took steps back away from the mullet-angel. He worked hard to keep his birds healthy, he wasn't throwing all of it away now. The angel looked visibly offended as he closed the gap Lance just created.

“You accuse heaven of having diseases?” He sounded angry.

“Yes!” Lance took another step back, sounding equally angry.

“Why?” The angel practically yelled. His wings shook as he stomped towards Lance.

“Look-“ Lance caught himself yelling and took a second to proceed with a calmer voice. “Look, no one knows anything real about angels or heaven, you are mystical creatures from books!”

The angel blinked then, shoulders and wings dropping. In a calmer light Lance knew that if this angel was real -if he wasn't having psychosis- he was the one needed protection and secrecy here.

“Listen,” Lance stopped covering his face. “I don’t know how you ended up here but you’re not real on earth. And if anyone sees you, they’ll hold you captive, cut you open, they can kill you! And- and you’ll send the whole World into chaos mode and one of my best friends has anxiety, it would ruin him. I’m not letting that happen.”

“They’ll... what?” The angel asked, confusion audible in his voice, shock visible on his face. He looked as if someone gave him wrong directions for a wrong earth and now he had ended up here.

“They’ll hurt you, interrogate you. Nothing like you ever walked on earth before.” Lance answered solemnly, somewhere along the line deciding that the angel isn’t carrying any sort of disease.

 

The angel turned his back to Lance then, nearly smacking him with his wings.

“Are you... okay?” Lance asked, still not taking a step towards him. Instead of answering the angel raised one hand up and turned his face towards the rubble he came out from. With a single movement of his fingers, the shards of glass and chunks of cement and wood started gathering together into wholes they used to be. Then they rose back to the ceiling they originally belonged. In a single minute the whole mess was gone and the window was back like an angel hadn’t crashed through it. Lance originally decided to hold his breath and not say anything. Obviously he failed:

“WOW! You have magic?” Lance sort of chuckled sort of breathed out. The angel turned to him with a grieving look.

“I must erase _all_ my traces on earth, right?” He looked down on his bare hands as if he's calculating how to get rid of Lance. 

The faint golden light flickered and vanished as silence fell heavily between the odd duo. Lance’s voice was surprisingly steady when he finally spoke:

“I’m not going to give you in.” 

 

The angel narrowed his eyes, taking slow steps towards Lance.

“Why should i trust you?”

Lance didn't skip a beat:

“I could have contacted the police multiple times by now.”

Silence. Another step. 

 

The angel was pretty close like this. He gazed into Lance’s eyes.

“You don’t look like you’re lying or planning something.” _Yeah no shit..._

“That’s because i’m not.” Lance tipped his chin up to look more confident. He was taller than the... human parts of the angel. But the wings were another story. They were taller than both, looming above them. Lance felt a burning desire to study them.

“Besides,” he started. “I can fix your wing. It’s broken, isn’t it?” The brunette raised a knowing eyebrow. The angel took his time, shut his jaw and clenched it good before answering:

“Yes, but how will i know you’ll actually help?”

Lance smiled at that. His job was to help birds.

“Dude, you fixed my window! There was no way i could explain it. I owe you one.” The angel made a humming noise then, he tipped his head to look at the ceiling window.

“Wait- you have magic, right? Can you treat your own wing?” Lance asked.

“No.” The angel was still looking up at the window. _Maybe he’s looking beyond it, maybe he’s looking at his home._ “I used the last of my magic on the window.” He turned his head to look at Lance. The ornithologist made a noise of acknowledgement.

“How did you fall down anyway? You didn’t trip and fell from the edge of heaven, did you?”

A flash of anger and something far more vulnerable crossed the angelic face at the question. _Are all angels this angry?_

“That is none of your business.”

 

Lance raised both his hands as if he’s surrendering.

“Okay, okay, edgy mullet angel. Let’s go get you up and running again, or should i say up and flying again?” Lance did what he know the best: Using humor to cover the fact that he was clueless of what's happening. He flashed him a smile and took a hold of his arm to lead him to the infirmary.

He was cold to touch. _That can be changed._


	2. Pillow Talk,Just Without The Pillow

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Lance and Keith step into a journey together, already starting to trust each other as if there is something tying them together, invisible to the eye.

Never Lance ever thought he’d drag a fallen angel _A human size bird? Part bird? A person with wings?_ in the corridors of his facility. Despite calling several women and men angels in the past, he never thought they were actually real. Most importantly, in this case, never have Lance ever thought he’d see someone looking good even though they had a mullet.

“You don’t have to be touching me. You know that, right?” The angel asked, a slight smirk masked in his voice by the mostly audible annoyance. Lance snorted softly.

“You don’t have to be so boring.” He imitated his voice as best as he could: “You know that, right?” 

The angel grumbled behind him.

“I do not talk like that.” He said grumpily, mostly to himself.

“Oh boy do i have news for you.” Lance flashed a grin over his shoulder at that. Mullet avoided eye contact.

 

“Anyways,” Lance said after a minute of walking silently. He cleared his throat as he opened the door to the infirmary. Keith squinted when Lance switched the lights on. It was a simple room with a chair, a stretcher, a boring counter and a first aid cabinet.

“Please sit.” Lance directed Keith towards the stretcher and let go of his wrist. The angel paddled his way over, the pain of falling kicking in as the shock and adrenalin faded away.

“What’s your name by the way?” Lance asked as he dug into the drawer and took a pair of new latex gloves.

“I have two names. One is used in heaven, it is... a whistle.” The angel spoke slowly as Lance got the gloves on and crouched down to take bandages from the lowest drawer.

“Tell me the other one then.” He replied nonchalantly.

“Keith.” The angel answered while Lance atteined a bundle of bandages and got up, closing the drawer in the mean time.

Keith was sat on the middle of the stretcher, his white dress matching the fabric covering the medical equipment. He had crossed his legs by his ankles and was swinging them back and forth. He had gathered and closed his healthy wing in order to fit in the room. The other one was closed as much as possible but it was still brushing the wall next to Keith. He almost looked like a child waiting fort he principal to call him in his room.

“Okay, nice to meet you Keith.” Lance said as he quickly walked over to him to stand in front of the broken wing. “I’m Lance by the way.” He added as his eyes roamed the wing. Keith nodded slightly. 

“So, buddy, i can practically see where did it break...” Lance took his eyes from the wing to look at Keith’s face. His voice was calmer and more serious now. Keith couldn’t help but be surprised at that. Lance didn’t look like he was a serious human.

“...but i want to be sure. You’re too big fort he x-ray machine. I’m gonna try and feel where it is. Okay?” 

“Uuh...” Keith fidgeted where he was sitting. He wanted to tell Lance that it was an intimate gesture to touch one’s wings but instead he croaked out:

“Okay.”

Lance put his hands on his wing after the affirmation.

“Don’t smack me with your gigantic wing.” He murmured as his fingers pressed into the top of the wing, where it had to have a bone. Keith flinched at the contact. It hurt and it was weird feeling this human’s touch on his wing. Plus, he didn’t like the gloves’ texture at all. No one had touched his wings since he was a toddler. Normally, angels received and gave these assuring touches from and for their families, close friends or partners. Keith didn't actually fall in the normal angel category.

 

Then, Lance’s fingers successfully found the place the wing broke, somewhere close to the tip of it yet still sending waves of pain through the whole wing. When gloved hands applied the smallest bit of pressure it sent the sharpest pain Keith was actually conscious to remember up in his body. He involuntarily jumped and tried clapping his broken wing to get away from Lance. Surprise, the whole movement hurt more.

 

“KEITH!” Lance yelled as he furiously brought up his arms up to his head to protect himself from getting hit. “WHAT DID I JUST SAY?”

“BUT IT HURT SO MUCH!” Keith answered, trying to still himself. Lance bashed his hands down and pointed a finger threateningly at Keith:

“Don’t do that if you don’t want to cause soft tissue and vein traumas.”

Keith took a deep breath. “Okay, okay... I’m calm.” He muttered. Serious Lance was kind of intimidating, not that Keith would ever admit it though.

Lance shot him another calculating look and closed the gap once again.

“Here’s what we’re gonna do,” He started opening the roll of bandage. “We’re gonna close your wing and bandage it to your torso. It must stay closed until it’s healed.” Keith straightened his posture. “But,” Lance tilted his head to the side, eyes roaming Keith’s form. The attention felt both flattering and stressing for the angel.

Keith nodded, if he was going to tell him it would hurt Keith already knew.

“Uh, your dress can be a bit of a problem, can you wear it one shouldered?” Lance asked, voice calculated to be steady and gaze deliberately fixed on the feathery wing. Keith also looked away quickly, biting his tongue slightly. He stripped the string on his dress that was located on his right shoulder since his right wing was broken and the clothing was getting in the way of bandages.

 

“Perfect!” Lance exclaimed, causing Keith to turn his head and look at him, a confused expression on his face. 

“Not you.” Lance added, laughing lightly. _Thank heaven it takes a lot for angels to blush._ “But you working with me is. Obviously, birds don’t understand what i say and panic.”

“I wonder why,” Keith grumbled, then spoke clearly:

“Let’s just get this on with.”

“Alright, close your wing.” Lance instructured as he grabbed the upper side of the wing with one hand and held the back of it with the other.

“Oh _quiznack._ ” Keith hissed through gritted teeth. _Pearly white teeth, Lance noted._ It hurt a good eight on a scale from one to ten.

“Hang in there.” Lance murmured and quickly started bandaging the wing securely. His gloved hands worked their way under Keith’s armpit, around his torso, back to his wing. Repeating this circular path until he was sure it was strong yet comfortable enough, Lance tended to Keith’s broken wing. He secured the bandage with a couple of clips where the material ended.

“Done and done!” Lance announced proudly. Keith took his gaze from the stretcher, he was trying to ignore the gloves texture as it kept touching his skin and feathers. He looked at his wing that lay under white bandages for a little bit before gazing up and meeting Lance’s gaze. _His eyes are pretty._

“Thank you.”

Lance’s smile traveled further up on his cheeks at that.

“No problem, though...” His eyes quickly scanned Keith, again. “I didn’t check your vitals or anything since you look okay. Are you hurting anywhere?” He asked as he took his gloves off and took one of Keith’s wrists in between his hands. He was so warm compared to Keith. It felt... Nice? Lance ruined the moment for Keith with:

“Where the fuck are your arteries?” His eyes were open wide, eyebrows furrowed. He looked weirded out.

“No wait! I found it!” Lance’s long, warm fingers pressed into Keith’s cold skin. He held his breath as he started counting the angel’s heart beats, eyes glued to his watch to keep a one minute timer manually.

Keith realized he was also holding his breath when there was no need. He slowly exhaled as he watched the human. His skin was warm, his gaze, despite his ocean eyes, was warm. It didn’t feel like it was tearing into Keith. The angel decided Lance was overall a warm human, he spoke with ease and sincerity.

 

“Why is your heart so slow?” Lance asked. Scared, he worried his lower lip between his teeth.

“It’s normal. Why? How fast is your’s?” Keith countered, equally taken aback. His hands escaped from Lance’s hold and turned the soft caramel palms upside down to do the same thing Lance had done to him. The human’s heartbeats were vibrating through his veins rapidly under Keith’s fingertips.

“Are you...” Keith looked up to examine Lance’s face. “...scared?” he asked. Keith was warned by his teachers, alongside his fellow student angels back in school, that humans can be shocked and try to worship angels. But no one had mentioned fear.

 

“No.” Lance answered calmly. “My heartbeat is normal for a human.”

“It’s so quick.” Keith gasped as he looked back down on Lance’s long fingered, healing hands. The angel looked peaceful for the first time he’s been there. His eyebrows were free of suspicious furrowing, his jaw unchlenced. He really looked like he belonged to heaven, shining even under the artificial light from the cheap light bulb.

A silence filled with unvoiced questions stretched and loomed over them. 

 

“How are you so warm?” Keith dared to speak first. He looked up at Lance who was already looking at him.

“Are you cold?” The researcher raised an eyebrow.

“No.” Keith said and looking down, he realized he was caressing Lance’s wrist with his thumb. He yanked his hands away as if Lance was poisonous. _Smooth move, Keith._

“Uh, this is normal body heat for an angel.” He delivered in one breath. Lance uncharacteristically stayed silent, only nodding and cleaning his throat.

 

“So,” he turned around to draw a chair to sit, facing Keith. His movements were always gracious yet dramatic as if he was delivering a play to an audience. “How did you fall from heaven?” He asked, raising and putting one leg up by balancing his ankle on top of his other knee.

There was no need to hide it anymore. This human had proved himself by not alarming anyone and healing his wing. 

Keith fidgeted with his fingers as he spoke sadly:

“I got exiled.” 

 

Lance’s heart picked up pace then. _A criminal angel? Will cop angels come down and search for him?_

“What did you do?” He asked softly, with hopes of his voice not betraying him and showing his worry.

Keith simply shrugged like it was nothing then.

“I disobeyed authority.” But by the look on Lance’s face he felt the need to explain more.

 

“Heaven is... a weird realm. If you’re pretty, you’re privileged. I thought it was stupid and told so, many times, then they got angry and exiled me.” Lance felt his eyebrows shot up into surprised arches. _Then you must’ve been their king up there,_ he thought as the angel possessed similar thoughts for him: _You could’ve survived easily in heaven, rise up to the higher commands._

Lance felt like there was more to the story but the angel wasn't going anywhere with one operational wing. He could ask later, so “Tell me more about heaven. What do angels do there all day?” he asked. 

 

Instead of answering right away, Keith bent his healthy wing in a position that the upper half of it was standing in front of his body. In this new state he could easily reach his wing.

Keith started arranging his disheveled feathers with his pale fingers, looking unimpressed. _It’s like running your fingers through your hair to look cool,_ Lance thought but he couldn’t look away from the wing.

“There are professions you can choose from. Being a guardian angel is the most popular of all. Basically, you get granted a passport to enter and leave Earth easily. You get a human assigned to you and you, uh, protect them.” Keith stopped when a particular part in his wing created a struggle. He fell silent as his tongue sticked out in focus as he arranged the stubborn feathers.

“You can be a politician to rule Heaven.” He said after a moment, looking at Lance momentarily to be sure he is listening. “Lots of them are familiar to the professions you have here on Earth. We have teachers, chefs, architects, cops... In addition, there are mages who master magic and keep the laws of magic in check. They can’t have angels spelling others’ wings glued.” Keith smiled a bit.

Lance chuckled softly. “Something tells me that is a thing you’ve done at one point.” He commented, eyes never leaving Keith’s smile.

Luckily for Lance, said smile grew into a smirk as the angel answered:

“Maybe. Now tell me about Earth. Books up in Heaven don’t cover everything.” The angel looked up at Lance, dismissing his wing back to his place behind his shoulder. The noise the feathers made as they move was like music to Lance.

 

“Sounds like you know a lot about Earth though.” He answered instead.

Keith nodded. “We are watching all the realms, Earth included. But we can’t see everything. I never saw anyone trapping this many birds in one place, for example.” His eyes sparkled dangerously. 

Lance stayed silent for a moment, looking up at Blue who was happily perched on the doorframe. Did Keith think he was putting birds into cages for fun? 

“They are going extinct. I’m trying to stop that from happening with my team.” He said sadly. 

Keith also followed his gaze to watch the blue macaw. Imagining every single member of this lively, innocent beings disappearing was gravely saddening.

“I’m sorry to hear that.” Keith murmured. He never was that good with words.

“Don’t be.” Lance took his eyes from Blue to look at Keith. The angel once again followed his motion, looking at Lance only to see a fire burning in his blue blue eyes. “It’s not a lost fight. Not as long as i’m alive, anyways.” 

 

Keith stayed silent. Humans were told to be weak and lazy by heaven. Nearly all the angels he knew looked down on them. But the only angel Keith trusted other than himself told different and Keith was slowly realizing that the said angel was right. It has been mostly half an hour since they’ve met but Lance portrayed nothing but a big heart. And he was a bit annoying but that was off topic.

“So, what were you doing up in Heaven?” Lance tore Keith away from his thoughts of him.

“I was an intern guardian.” The angel answered, nostalgia creeping into his voice. Heaven wasn't the best, sure. But it wasn't all bad either.

 

“Aww!” Lance cooed, “That’s so cool! But uhh, how does this ‘getting exiled’ thing work. You can’t be the first to get exiled, right? If more angels crashed down on earth we would know.” He questioned, getting confused once again.

“I’m the first one to get exiled in a while. I think Earth was living it’s Middle Ages? when an angel got exiled last.” Keith spoke, not trusting his high school knowledge that much and end up asking rather than stating.

Lance’s jaw automatically opened as an answer. He shook his head to the sides quickly. 

“Middle Ages? That’s- that is... not the most surprising thing happened tonight.” He collected himself by the end of his sentence. 

 

“So, what is going to happen now?”

Keith shrugged. “They will send me my halo back and i will contact heaven with it. Once they’ll be sure that i...” He made quoting sings with his fingers in air “...learned my lesson, i’ll ascend back to heaven.” 

He spoke so nonchalantly that Lance wanted to bawl his eyes out and laugh until his stomach hurt at the same time. _Oh, i’m just gonna ascend to Heaven, no big deal._

 

“It can take a while though.” The angel added.

Lance raised both hands to scrub his eyelids. _Okay, okay, it’s okay. I just have to stick with him until he gets his halo back._

 

Keith watched as Lance took his time with his movements. There was a blue band around one of his fingers with a picture of a woman on it. _Of course there was._ Keith silently scolded himself for not thinking of such an option.

“You can’t stay here. There is no way i can hide you from my collagues.” Lance lowered his hands, placed them on his tighs as he looked straight at Keith. “I can take you home. Will you be okay with that?” He asked, genuinely considering his comfort.

Keith bit the inside of his cheek hard before answering.

 

“I don’t think your wife would approve of that.” He tried to keep his voice stoic as possible. Of course he shouldn’t have thought of the stupid romance novels he read back in Heaven. Novels where an exiled angel fell in love with a human. YAA (young adult angel) novels where the human returns the feelings.

 

“What?” Lance asked in complete shock. His face looked like he couldn’t decide between being offended and being sincerely dazzled.

Keith pointed to his hand that had the band with his eyes:

“Is that not a ring? A symbol of you being bonded? Is that not your wife on it?” His attempts of keeping the anger away from his voice were wearing thin and he didn’t even know what or who he was angry at. At Lance in finding a human to share his life with? At his wife in landing on the treasure that is Lance? At himself for letting him even think that he could find love in an absurd scenario? 

Lance slowly looked at the band around his finger. Then, he started laughing. _He thinks... This Frozen band aid- What?_

 

Keith watched as he curled in two as laughter shook his body. He wanted to laugh along with him but it was hard when he was the one being laughed at.

“Oh Keith,” Lance said as he drew a breath in before falling into another fit of giggles. “This is a band aid. I got bit this morning and got this band aid on. It’s for children, so it has this cartoon character on it.” He explained finally, with a grin brighter than the fountain in the town square back at Heaven- the one that’s made of the whitest marble and had liquid golden running through it.

Lance was teary eyed and flushed from all those breathless laughing and Keith was slowly turning pink from the sinking embarrassment. 

 

Lance made a mental note to make Keith watch Frozen and see the Elsa he thought that was Lance’s wife. He chuckled once more at the angel blushing in front of him. It was such a sight.

 

“It’s only me and Blue and i’m single as heck. You coming?” Lance asked, smirking.

Keith couldn’t help but smile a little at how friendly Lance was. But still cautious,

“I’m thinking that it will be more comfortable from here.” He answered.

Lance snorted.

“Obviously dude. I may be a bit broke and have a small house but it actually has like a couch and a kitchen.” Lance got up from the chair, whistling for Blue to come land on his shoulder. 

Keith allowed a big,real smile to be shown on his face then. He always liked being on the move and this facility looked a bit boring. He jumped off the stretcher. A couch would actually work miracles now.

“Lead the way, human.” He said.

Lance shot a grin as if he was daring Keith to be closer than that. 

“Call me Lance. And i hope you love listening to stories because i love talking about my life a lot.” He wiggled his eyebrows.

“ _Just move, Lance._ And i’ll decide whether your life is worth listening or not.” Keith smirked, enjoying Lance’s antics already. Lance smiled softly but his eyes were another story.

 

“Oh you’ll love it, trust me.” Lance answered with sparkles in his eyes, excited to find someone who bounces on his competitiveness and replies with the same fire.

Keith could do that. He could trust Lance, he could get used to calling him by his name. _I can get used to calling your name everyday if you’re going to answer with these smiles._

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Thank you for reading! I'm thinking of taking turns writing the chapters from Lance and Keith's POV maybe. What do you think?
> 
> You can find me as @ livennadin on Twitter, come talk to me about this bird lover and edgy angel!


	3. So... This Is Home?

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> welcome... to domesticity

“I hate this so much.” Keith grumbled as he fidgeted yet once again. He was laying face down in the back seat of Lance’s boring,old car. Lance granted the pile of feathers a glance through the rear window for a quick second. It was not advised for angels to lay on their backs-on their wings for long periods of time even when the wings were okay so it obviously wasn’t an option for Keith’s broken one.

“Yeah, you kind of said that already,” Lance took the last right turn, sending Keith moving forward and hitting his head softly on the car door. “Like, a thousand times.” He continued.

 

They had decided to use the hours that were late nights and early mornings, the hours where thoughts dripped into reality on bedroom ceilings, the hours where clearity and honesty only existed under the yellow lights coming from tall street lamps. Despite the fact that was early november, fifth to be exact, Keith hadn’t even mentioned the cold as he stood next to Lance’s car outside of the facility in only his dress.

“Why can’t I ride on the front seat but Blue can?” He had asked, much like an eight year old, much to Lance’s amusement and frustration.

“Because,” Lance tugged on his coat, zipping it all the way up. “If someone’s out there they won’t even see Blue. But if you sit there, they’ll see you.” The ornithologist’s breaths turned into white huffs, just another indicator that it was really cold. Apparently, angels didn’t have that thing when they exhaled their hot breaths clashed into the breeze of the late night. The only proof that Keith was there was what Lance’s own two eyes telling him.

“Fine.” The angel had grumbled and had un-crossed his arms. He seemed to cross his arms over his chest a lot, sort of like a barrier between him and the world.

 

“You are,” A dramatic pause. “the worst driver ever.” A huff of annoyence. “Do you even know how to drive?” The angel shifted uncomfortably again.

“Oh shut up, mullet.” Lance answered without giving it much thought, after all, Lance was always told he gets comfortable with others fast. This time he looked at Blue who was standing happily on the front seat with her bird leash on. Not that she would fly off. Not that she had a place to fly to.

The blue macaw let out a low chirp with a hint of her parrot self showing in her voice. “I know Blue, I know. He’s so grumpy.” Lance said in a sympathetic voice. Keith growled.

“That’s not true! Tell him, Blue!”

The vehicle entered the familiar street as empty pavements were their only witnesses the moment the angel spoke. The clock read 3.27 am. 

The small, three story brick building-the cheapest one in the street- greeted them silently, every window dark as the residents were sleeping. Lance didn’t need a big place. Lance didn’t want a big place, he was alone with Blue anyways. This one was a bit far away from the facility but it wasn’t anything troublesome. Plus, the rent was worth the thirty minutes commute in the mornings.

“Okay. We’re home!” Lance exclaimed calmly, retraining his keys from the socket they were snugly plugged in.

“Okay, okay... How do I...? Uuh-wait...” Keith muttered as he tried to lift his arms to open the door for himself. But Lance, being the genteman he is, got out and opened the door for Keith. And Lance, knowing too damn well that he could also help him out, walked over to the other side of the car to get Blue out instead. Because he could. Because Keith complained the whole ride.

When the angel finally crawled out of the car, feathers tossled together-some sticking out in odd angles, hair in his eyes, face a bit pink with all the effort Lance grinned like an idiot:

“Aw! You look kinda cute when you’re pouty.” 

Keith’s pout doubled as his lower lip sticked out a bit more.

“You do realize that we’re going to stay in the same house, right? I can grab a tweezer and just mess your perfect eyebrows when you’re sleeping.” He deadpanned, face and voice completely serious.

Lance gasped, a hand flying over to touch one of his -indeed perfect- eyebrows: “You would never.”

“Don’t test me, human.” Came the response.

“Psh, whatever. Let’s get inside.”

 

The flat was nothing special in sense of architecture, it felt as small as it looked but every inch of spare space was covered with memories. On the rack right next to the door hung three huge, knitted scarves that Lance’s mother, sister and Lance himself knitted each. The kitchen and the living room were separated only with two counters-sort of like the ones they had in bars. On the counters stood plants Pidge gifted him over the years. They were researched gifts where they both knew the plants bloomed blue flowers every spring. The kitchen was small, like the rest of the flat, there weren’t many kitchen gadgets –a topic Hunk made sure to complain about every time he cooked in Lance’s kitchen- but a simple coffee machine stood on the counter like it owned the whole place. It was a gift from his mother when he first moved into this new flat: “Since you’re late for work regularly- Sincerely,Mama.” 

A fridge stood tall as if guarding the flat, covered in colorful yet poorly coordinated drawings from Lance’s nieces and nephews.

In the living room, a dark blue, beat up couch was placed. Next to it, a coffee table that held Lance’s laptop and a mess of chargers and cables. On the wall behind the couch were multiple framed pictures-of Lance’s family, of his friends, of Blue- but the two ones Lance favored the most was the big family photo because it was the only one with Lance’s dad in it and the picture Miss Holt took of Pidge, Hunk and Lance on their graduation day, their smiles brighter than stars, bodies close after the tenth hug they had shared that they.

Lance didn’t own a TV but a small painting of a shark doing a thumbs up Matt painted for him as a present was hung in the place the flat originally had for a television. “If you look at it long enough you’ll feel like it’s moving!” Matt had said. “Who needs a tv?”

There also stood a bookshelf, not overflowing with books but decorated with ornaments. A little sculpture Lance bought on his trip to Cuba stood next to the books he owned about birds. Two shelves down, a nostalgic gift from Hunk was placed. A night sky projection kit. It was an educational toy about the stars, it looked like a half sphere and when turned on it casted the stars and constellations over the room walls. Lance used to have one when he was a little boy, when Hunk was already his buddy, when they were spending hours looking at the replica of stars on the walls in their sleepovers.

A huge cage was nestled in front of the window. Not that Blue got in it much. But her food was in it and the crumbles she made while eating fell into the cage and was far more easy to clean.

Lance silenlty shifted out of his shoes and shimmied out of his coat as Keith discarded his sandals shyly and started looking around.

“So... Yeah,” Lance started and cleared his throat. “I know this place is a bit small—I’ll give you my bedroom, i’ll sleep on the couch. It’s a sofa bed- And of course i’ll change the sheets and give you clean ones... Um, if I have any-that is... Keith?”

The angel had moved into the living room after softly caressing the scarves as if they were made from feelings that were forbidden to him. He was taking slow, silent steps as Lance rambled.

Keith had a house back in Heaven. A roof over his head, four walls surrounding him. A bed, a place for his knives, walls, empty, empty walls that echoed only his and his voice back to him, not walls that a family’s voices bounced on. But this... was a home. Even the people that made Lance who he is and loved him into this warm soul weren’t physically here, they were here, home with Lance. Keith had never been good with words but he thought even if he were, he would be speechless right there.

“Keith? Is everything okay?” Lance came to stand next to the angel, concern washing over his face.

“All these memories are yours, aren’t they?” Keith answered instead, finally looking at Lance.

“Uh...” Lance looked around quickly too before returning Keith’s gaze. “Yeah... About where you’ll sleep-“

Keith turned his whole body to him then, cutting Lance off:

“I’ll sleep on the couch. You keep your bed.” The amazement and longing in Keith’s face was gone in a second.

“No! It’s okay, really... You must be tired from all that... getting banished from Heaven stuff.” Lance argued, voice tattering on the edge of unsure.

“Lance, have you looked into a mirror in the last couple of hours?”

Now that stung. Now, that felt and sounded exactly like one of the harsh rejects Lance encountered. A disorientating feeling overtook the brunette. _Don’t be this sensitive, don’t be this sensitive. Remember what the therapist said._

“You have bags under your eyes.” Keith’s voice snapped him back to reality. “I mean, you look more tired than I do.” _Oh... that._

Keith watched as Lance took a steady deep breath and threw him a playful smirk that looked really distracted. Somehow Keith knew his smile wasn’t sincere.

“Okay, mullet. If you insist.” He shrugged.

Still, Keith shortly nodded. He didn’t ask what was wrong, he didn’t want to show him how easy Keith could read him. 

After an awkward moment of silence, Lance quickly turned and walked away, looking at the kitchen as if he remembered its existence just now. 

“Are you hungry? What do angels even eat?” he asked as his long legs quickly took him to the kitchen, allowing him to open the fridge and start rummaging through it.

Keith hastily followed behind. He was so hungry he could eat a aureqoe. Golden horses that lives in Heaven-don’t ask, they are pretty snappy animals.

“Fruits. Like gapples.”

Lance threw him a look over his shoulder then.

“What the fuck is a gapple?” He asked with the same tone he swore.

“You know, golden apples.” Keith shrugged casually but voice with disbelief. “Do you not have those on Earth?”

“No?” Lance said. _Are there supposed to be golden apples?_

“Shame. They are actually good.” _What do humans eat? Regular apples?_

Lance looked at Keith for a few more unbelieving seconds before turning away and fishing out some apples, oranges and carrots for him. Kicking the fridge door closed soflty, he hold out the oranges for Keith to see.

“Then what do you call these? Goranges?” He asked, laughing a bit. Maybe Keith was joking. Yeah, he was probably joking.

“Uh, no.” Keith scoffed, amused yet offended that someone would even think that. “That sounds like gore-nge. Of course we don’t.”

Lance full blown laughed then, a bubbly sound stolen straight from his lungs. A sound that went directly to Keith’s smile, making it bigger.

“Then what are they called?”

“Golden oranges.”

Lance stood frozen for a second before doubling up with a loud snort that he actually felt on the roof of his mouth and in his nose.

“Oh my god.” He started laughing pretty loudly. _His laugh is kind of cute_

“What?” Keith was giggling too as he reached out and took the fruits from Lance’s hands. “I’m not joking!” Lance willingly dumped the fruits in Keith’s hands. He took a deep breath and turned around to get a plate from the cabinet, still chuckling.

“You have to tell me _all_ about Heaven.” He said as if he’s talking to himself more than Keith.

“Well... yeah, you’re going to tell me your life story, remember? In return I’ll tell you mine... featuring Heaven.” Keith responded while watching Lance.

Lance twisted his body and turned around just in time to catch Keith open and sincere again, like that little moment back at the infirmary. Mama McClain always told Lance that they, as a family, had great sixth sense. It used to scare Lance when he was a child but now he knew it was true. Within minutes or sometimes hours if the person is closed Lance could decide whether someone is trustworthy or not. Could usually tell –more accurately, feel- what others are feeling. When he met Hunk they both were toddlers, so he didn’t actually need to test him. But Hunk had pretty good gut feelings too, so when they both saw Pidge with a backpack too heavy for her posture, still somehow not enough since she had books under her arms too, on the first they of high school they both knew she was a kind soul. She had troubles shadowing her and maybe some secrets that made her heart heavy, but Hunk and Lance knew she would be their friend.

So when Lance saw Keith all open like this, he saw a scarred boy that never actually got to grow up. He was all sharp edges but with a gentle heart. Lance would rather go through great pain before seeing Keith get hurt by other people. Lance had already decided he’d protect Keith the moment the angel looked him in the eye.

“Yeah.” Lance smiled softly. “I love stories, this is going to be a great night.”

 

Lance discovered two things when they moved to the living room to sit on the sofa and talk:

One, Keith sat with his legs tucked under him. _How cute is that? Ugh._

Two, he was way too good with knives. He was alarmingly good with knives. When they both sat down Keith inspected the pathetic fruit knife in his head with a frown. “Why do you even bother calling this a knife?” His pale fingers had no hesitation or fright as he peeled all of the fruits and sliced them in surprisingly even pieces in a record timing. Lance had watched it all with an open mouth.

“What?” Keith asked at Lance’s expression.

“The interns in Hunk’s kitchen would kill to be this skilful with knives!” Lance exclaimed-all excited and surprised.

Keith stuffed a slice of regular earth apple in his mouth and asked while he still was chewing it:

“Hunk?”

Lance decided raising one eyebrow at the angel’s manners is enough and answered:

“He’s one of my best friends. He’s a chef and he’s the kindest person you can ever meet.” Keith just raised his eyebrows, mouth occupied with basically half of his plate all at once.

“Yeah,” Lance continued as he turned his body wholly to Keith, flinging one arm at the top of the couch. He tilted his head enough to rest it on his palm that was at the same level with his head now, all the while watching Keith trying to consume all the fruits she stuffed in his mouth. He looked like a squirrel with cheeks full. “He is my childhood friend, he has always been there in my life.” Lance smiled.

Finally, Keith managed to down the fruits to his stomach. He cleared his throat before talking.

“What about the other one?”

“My other best friend? She’s a genius. Honestly they both are geniuses. Her name’s Pidge. She’s coding stuff in a communication company.” 

Keith stopped raising the raw carrot to his mouth mid air and frowned at Lance. 

“What is coding?”

After Keith listening Lance talk about how his life was growing up –without any mentions of his father, Keith noticed- how he spent his whole days at the beach whenever Lance’s family was able to afford a summer trip, how he played with his brothers and sisters, how he was occasionally babysitting their children now, how he always loved birds, how he and Hunk met Pidge in high school and became inseparable after that, the time read 4.07 am on Lance’s phone screen.

“So,” Lance yawned, his half lidded eyes closing fully for a moment. “What is _your_ story?” 

He somehow made those four words sound like Keith had a unique story, one that would be heard. But if you ask Keith, his story was the kind forcing others to shut their mouths and turn their heads away, resulting in not so sincerely murmured “sorry”s. But at the same time, the spark in Lance’s eyes despite his exhaustion and the warmth in his voice almost got Keith to think that his story was just starting now. Got Keith to nearly think that he owned the luxury to dream of a better future.

“Maybe we should try and sleep a bit? I can tell you everything you want to know tomorrow.”

Lance slowly closed his eyelids with a bitter smile on his face.

“Nah, go on. I have trouble sleeping anyways.” Lance would see Keith’s skeptical look if he hadn’t closed his eyes but then again, Keith wouldn’t throw that look if his eyes were open. Deciding not to delve too much into emotions Keith took a sharp breath:

“It rains liquid gold in Heaven.”

Lance’s eyes snapped open as he straightened his neck to fully look at Keith.

“No way!”

Keith’s lips curved into a smug smile. He knew that rain on Earth was just water from his days as an high schooler angel, he always thought that he’d use this information on the humans he will be assigned as their guardian angel. “Yes way.” He chuckled.

Lance closed his jaw to open it offendedly again, “You can’t counter ‘No way’ with ‘Yes way’ Mullet-“

“Yes I can.” Keith cut him off. 

“You can’t,” Lance rolled his eyes mid sentence. “And you just made that rain thing up!” The way he said it reminded Keith so much of a toddler. Instead of voicing that thought, the angel laughed.

“You’re unbelievable... You ask me to tell you about Heaven and then you refuse to believe what I, the only one who knows Heaven here, say.” He said between fading giggles. 

Lance cocked one eyebrow up, already defensive as he opened his mouth. Breathing in, then he realized that Keith was actually right.

“That’s... True.” He giggled, eyelids dropping heavily. Keith decided he let it slip, he wasn’t sure what Lance would think if he mentioned going to sleep again.

So Keith started his own story, how he got accepted into the guardian training, how he was supposed to use his powers to make himself invisible to humans as he roamed the Earth behind his assigned human, mostly protecting them. He talked about his knife collection and how he always wanted to wield a sword but everyone up in Heaven told him they were _too human..._ How white and glistening the marbles up in Heaven was, how every angel came with different shapes and colors of wings, how an angel can get it dyed if they wished, how some angels had only one wing or didn’t have wings at all. He spoke softly of the stray kittens and cats he used to feed up in Heaven alongside his fellow angels. How the cats had itsy-bitsy wings too. 

“Does everything in Heaven has wings?” Lance asked then, smile sweeter than glistening honey Keith used to drop in his tea.

“Usually yes—The buildings don’t, though, they hover on their own.” Keith answered, eyes deep purple in the dim lightning but turning sharper and lighter, turning violet, when a car used the street outside-- it’s lights momentarily inviting themselves in Lance and Keith’s living room through the window, illuminating Keith’s face then trailing behind the vehicle outside and vanishing from the room. 

Lance turned his gaze to his phone screen when Keith finished. It was 5.01 am.

“You didn’t mention your family though.” The ornithologist stated softly rather than asking, not quite having the courage to look up at Keith since he feared that he might be pushing his boundaries. But that was what Lance always do, anyways. Poking his way into things that were not naturally open to him.

Keith knew that was only masked as a statement though, he picked up that Lance was a curious soul in the last five hours of meeting him. He clenched his jaw tight as if it would stop the words from coming out. That’s what he always imagined as a boy anyways. He’d clench his jaw as they kept asking “Why didn’t you do your homework, Keith?” “I would like to talk to your parents about your condition, is that possible?” “Where are they Keith? Where did your mom and dad go?”

Would Lance start bombarding him with questions? Would his eyes water? Keith always hated crying in front of others. So he did what he does the best second. He dodged the question.

“Tell me why you can’t sleep.” He said.

Lance’s eyes hesitantly looked up to see Keith’s gaze fixed on the fridge across them. What did he have to lose?

“Well, according to my therapist, what I repress during the day comes back in my dreams at night. Guess I’m scared to sleep.” Lance answered, muttering the last part as his eyes absently bored into Keith’s jawline.

Then, Keith did what he does the best. He sliced through the situation. Leaving all cautiousness behind he asked:

“Are you okay?”

Besides he was originally training to be a guardian angel, it was his job to protect and preserve anyways. His eyes were fixed on Lance’s. He felt relief washing over since the ocean blue eyes were dry when they returned the gaze. He was awful with others crying.

“I’m okay.” Lance smiled sincerely. “It’s just... Seems I don’t communicate my feelings enough and they interfere with the quality of my life, you know?” He shrugged. Keith raised an eyebrow. 

Lance chuckled then, “I’m okay, really. We’re working through it—It’s just seems I need a bit counseling. Thank you for asking buddy.” 

Keith nodded shortly. He didn’t quite know what to say, but it was good to hear that Lance was willing to fix whatever was going on.

“I’m glad.” The angel said only to quickly add:  
“NOT because you need counseling—uuh, i mean...” He cleared his throat. “I’m glad you’re getting the help you need.” 

Lance just smirked with raised eyebrows decorating his face, acompanying the glint in his eyes. _That smug little golden shit._ It was a common swear in Heaven, don’t ask. Don’t ask about angels’ excretory systems.

“Yeah, yeah, I get what you’re saying.” He reached a hand and slightly patted Keith’s knee twice as he hoisted his body up from the couch. “Let me find you some sheets and a pillow.”

In five minutes, the sofa was worked into a bed enough for Keith to fit, taking all the place in the living room doing so. It was covered in Star Wars sheets—for some reason unknown to Keith, made Lance blush and apologize. And the pillow was nothing compared to the soft ones back in Heaven but Lance went all the way to give him some spare pajama bottoms. 

“I’d give you a t-shirt too but i have _absolutely no idea_ how that could work with the wings.” He had said. It was okay, Keith didn’t feel cold anyways. He could sleep topless. 

“Thanks.” Keith said as Lance backed away slowly to the hall leading to his room. Blue was fast asleep in her cage.

“No problem. Wake me up if you need anything... Uh—I’ll probably involuntarily wake you up trying to make a toast and coffee and all...” Lance was leaning to the wall next to him, looking at Keith with a little apologetic smile. He was going to get ready for work in two hours.

Keith smiled in return too. “That’s okay, see you in a couple of hours, Lance.” He said. _Please be here when i wake up._

Lance closed his eyes in contentment before answering:

“See you then, Keith.” _Please don’t be a dream. Please be real._

 

Two hours something later, Lance’s alarm mercilessly cut through the silence. Then all was a sleepy blur for Keith. He remembers seeing Lance stumble into the kitchen with disheveled hair. He remembers Blue singing to both of them... very loudly and pretty persistently. Then the smell of coffee, much more softer than the ones in Heaven, then the smell of burnt bread. “Oh fuck I burnt my toast! It’s all your wings’ fault! They’re too pretty!” After that, a hurry of Lance getting into his coat and selecting a scarf for the day. “See you later, Mullet. I’ll try and come home early—By the way you can watch movies all you like, they’re on the lowest shelf. Bye!”

 

Lance pulled his car to his usual spot in front of the building like he always did. He got out of the car, assisted the lady that was a blue macaw out of the car kindly. This was also a part of his routine. He climbed the stairs by jumping twice of them at a time. He greeted the lovely neigbour he had one story down him. Nothing out of the ordinary. He fished out his keys and opened the door to his small flat. Just like every other day.  
Except this time, there was an angel waiting for him.

“I’m—“ He stepped inside, accidentally dropping his keys to the ground. “—back.” He grumbled as he bow his head, looking for the keys while discarding his shoes. Blue flew off his shoulder to get to her food waiting in her cage. Lance squinted his eyes at the ground, wondering which other dimension did it got lost in. Luckily for him Keith was in front of him in a second, kneeling down to get the keys the human dropped. His wings brushed the floor as he knelt down.

“Not idly do the leaves of Lorien fall.” The angel said as he got up and gave Lance his keys back. His eyes were watery and red when the brunette gazed back into them. _No..._

“Keith... Did you...” Lance started, taking the keys from him. “Did you marathoned the Lord of the Rings movies?”

Keith nodded enthusiastically, eyes glinting with a spark of interest. “Um, actually, I haven’t finished the Return of the King. I’m an hour or so in, wanna join?” He lifted his chin a bit, watching Lance with excitement. And honestly, who was Lance to say no to those eyes and Lord of the Rings?

“Sure,” He chuckled a bit. This was a great way to be welcomed home. “Pause it, let me make us some popcorn first.” Lance spoke as he unwind the scarf around his neck. Keith was already moving into the living room to pause the movie playing on the laptop that was seated all cozy on the sofa—it was still in a bed shape. There were two plates on the sofa too, one had sliced fruits in, the other had the excess peels. So Keith could peel fruits without taking his eyes from the movie in front of him. _Impressive._

 

When the movie ended it was officially dark outside. It was late evening. Lance had made them both instant noodles for dinner. Keith hadn’t like them. At all. “Why can’t you make more of this _popcorn_?” He had asked, all pouty but eyes glued to the laptop’s monitor as Aragorn delivered his speech before the battle. 

“Because,” Lance had started, getting distracted as well when Aragorn yelled “But it is not this day!”  
“Popcorn isn’t a proper meal, Keith.” He had said.

“But these... tasteless sticks you boiled in water are a proper meal?” Keith had asked later on, squinting accusingly at Lance. As an answer, Lance just shoved Keith’s face away gently so that he was facing the screen. 

 

“So, who is your favourite?” Lance asked as he put the dvds back to their places. Keith was sharpening the fruit knives by grinding them together when there was no need to do so.

“Aragorn.” He answered without missing a beat. “What about you?” 

Lance plopped himself down onto the sofa bed, laying splayed on it like starfish. He answered as he watched his boring ceiling:

“Legolas.”

He heard a drawer opening and closing as Keith chuckled. He had put the knives away and was making his way to sit on the edge of the sofa, legs tucked underneath him again, Lance noted. Keith looked like he was perching rather than sitting. Lance found it so adorable. 

“A sharpshooter, huh?” Keith asked, half of a smirk ghosting on his lips. Lance hummed in approvement.

“Then that makes you a samurai. No wait, Aragorn’s a strider, though you dont’t look like one.” He spoke, more to himself than to Keith. Above him—still far away, on the edge of the sofa—but still in Lance’s sight, Keith scoffed.

“Pfft, what do I look like then?” 

It was a nonchalant question. He wasn’t actually waiting for an answer.

“An angel.” Lance answered anyway.

Keith twisted his body a little to give Lance the full experience as he rolled his eyes at him.  
“No, really!” Lance replied, something that could have been a smile on his face. Just like his and Keith’s relationship: a relationship where they could have been _something_ if the circumstances were different. If Keith belonged to Earth. “Even without the wings.”

Keith averted his eyes quickly, deciding to act like the scenery outside the window was more interesting than Lance.

After a few heartbeats shared in silence, Keith cleared his throat awkwardly.

“So uh... Were you able to doze off yesterday?” He was still not looking at Lance. Lance took his time looking at Keith:

“No. Couldn’t fall asleep.” The brunette answered.

“Me too.” The raven haired one muttered.

“But talking to you helped, y’know...” Lance took his eyes off him the moment Keith turned his gaze to him.

“Yeah?” Keith croacked out. Shrugging, he added:  
“You can sleep on the sofa?”

Lance sat up at that.

“Really?” He asked.

Keith rolled his eyes again, smiling this time.

“This is your house Lance, you can sleep anywhere.”

Lance laughed timidly. “Thanks for the heads up... But do you mean... next to you?” 

Keith nodded slowly, unsure of what he might be starting. After all, he was going to earn his ticket back to Heaven. Lance wouldn’t want him around long anyways, why bother getting used to him more? But at the same time, he was going to earn his ticket back to Heaven. Meaning he had limited time on Earth, why not use it as better as he can? Plus he could always request the Ministry of Other Realms to assign Lance to him and come back as his guardian angel.

“Oh, like a sleepover with a buddy!” Lance snapped Keith out of his thoughts. 

“Yeah!” Keith exclaimed a tad louder than necessary. “Like I’m babysitting you.” _Good job, Keith._

But Lance just snorted, much to Keith’s relief.

“Okay then, but I demand bedtime stories!” _What are you getting yourself into? What are you even getting yourself into?_

“Deal.” Keith smiled confidently.

You see, Lance has always used to be one to throw all his being into things, relationships especially. He just always had to pick up his fragile blue heart and hand it entirely to people, only to pick up the broken pieces of his heart, the shards of glass opening new wounds every time.

And you see, Keith has always used to be one to get himself into things, troubles especially. He just had a way to tie himself in red strings in situations, only to cut through the strings, the residues getting tangled around hin ankles, chaining him down.

“Oh, and Lance... We can open the bandages tomorrow. Angels heal quick.”

_He is already leaving._

“Really? Cool! We’ll do that tomorrow.”

_He is already letting me go._

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Once again, thank you so much for reading! I had finals so that's why this is a bit late! But *wiggles eyebrows* I'm on a break now, hopefully there will be new chapters soon!


	4. Trying My Best For You

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> We see where this odd duo landed mainly from Keith's eyes.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> There are mentions of a lost loved one and a car accident. It is brief and nothing is described but if you are sensitive about the topics, you can skip the very last part of this chapter. The speech takes place right after Keith and Lance return home.

Keith swore on his wings that he was doing this for Lance. As days chased each other on the calendar a bird food company sent Lance and all his coworkers as an advertisement, Keith only grew fonder of Lance. His eyes were a necessity to see for him to start his days, his voice was both his anchor and his jetpack. It was only reassuring now, how the sofa bed dipped under Lance’s weight as he climbed his way next to Keith.

Keith’s days were filled with books and movies. He had sat down and read the Fellowship of the Ring and the Two Towers in one day. Lance had almost lost his mind when Keith told him.  
“Wh- HOW?” he had yelled, eyes huge.

Keith had shrugged then, “When you become someone’s guardian angel, the Ministry of Other Realms hand you a summary of that person’s life, feelings and personality... It’s usually over thousand pages and a guardian angel generally gets three people to protect over their life time.” The angel had smiled and wiggled the book in his hand. “You gotta read fast.”

And Keith’s nights were his favourite part of his time on Earth. 

The first nights were awkward, they both laid down-stiff like two sticks- and they couldn’t actually fall asleep since they both had problems with sleep. So they talked about Heaven and Earth and everything in between and with time one of them started falling asleep as the other spoke. With time they got more and more used to each other.

 

“Keith, how did falling feel?” one night Lance had asked. He was laying down on his side, wearing a green shirt with a corgi on it. He had told Keith that he had stole it from Matt. His hair was tousled, eyes glinting, voice soft in the peaceful area between their bodies. Keith either had to sleep face down, wings up or laid down to his side, facing Lance, wings dangling off the sofa. He was doing the latter that day. 

He had wanted to tell Lance that he was still falling. 

Keith was no fool, he knew what was going on. With every brush of Lance’s body against his as they tried making proper dinners in the kitchen together, with every giggle slipping out of Lance’s lips, with every “Good morning, angel.” Lance blessed him with, he was falling. 

“Don’t really know, I passed out I guess.” Keith had answered. Falling in love with a human was both a blessing and a curse. He always had to hide himself when he’s on Earth and there was no way getting Lance in Heaven alive. It wasn’t fair for Lance. He deserved holding his lover’s hand and stand tall when they were walking out, he deserved to introduce his partner to the other important people in his life without worrying. If his lover were to be Keith, they couldn’t do any of this. They would have to hide constantly.

 

Keith was laying down on his side again, watching Lance tiredly. The calendar said it was 22th of november, seventeen days after Keith’s crashing. Lance was talking about his birds back in the facility but Keith’s mind was occasionally spiraling back to the framed family picture Lance had on his wall. Something about it always strangely felt familiar but Keith only remembered _today._ Keith knew Lance’s father. He remembered him.

“Do you remember the baby toucan I told you about? The one that was rescued from a smugler? Anyways, he’s getting big and healthy!” Lance continued talking, he was laying on his back, he tilted his head to his side to look at Keith. His eyes were shining.

“Aw!” Keith cooed, smiling broadly. “Do you have his picture?” 

Lance closed his eyes then:

“No... I’ll take one for you tomorrow.” He said. This devices humans had were really good in capturing moments.  
“Goodnight, Keith.” He mumbled as he turned on his side, facing Keith entirely with soft, tan skin shining under the moonlight.

Sleep came really hard for Keith. He found himself watching Lance as his breaths slowed, got deeper and evened out. 

_You can come back as his guardian angel._ Keith curled his fingers to a fist, nails digging into his palm harshly.

 _You’ll outlive him._ He willed his fingers open.

 _He’s not even aware of your feelings._ Lance was so close, laying there, looking mildly relaxed. He was still having unpleasant dreams but this time he had Keith to distract him if he woke up from a nightmare with a pounding heart. Keith’s fingers were shaking as he extended his arm to reach Lance.

 _What do you have to lose anyway?_ Keith knew Lance would never turn him in, expose his exsistence even if things went sour or awkward between them. So he touched his hair. He suspected it to be so soft, Lance had a way of taking good care of his body, but he still found himself surprised at the softness on his fingertips. He twisted and straightened the chocolate brown strands. He wondered how would it feel to have Lance’s warm fingers in his hair. Keith forced himself to stop as he felt his face burn with a blush even though Lance was fast asleep and was unaware of Keith’s hopeless actions.

 

He eventually fell asleep. He didn’t hear Lance get up and get ready the next morning. Keith woke up to an empty flat in noon.

He felt it the moment he opened his eyes.

“No way!” He whispered, voice raspy from sleep. It was like the day he crashed down on earth. He had a little magic in him. Enough for one or two tricks. Maybe it was an indicator that his halo will also be back soon.

“No way!” He repeated, louder, giggling. He couldn’t wait to tell this to Lance! The thought of the ornithologist spread in him like a drop of in in water. Keith’s eyes traveled back to the framed Picture on the wall.

He stood up on the sofa bed, opening his wings wide to stretch them. Their home-more accurately Lance’s home- was a bit small for Keith to open his wings. That left him a bit sore, not that he would admit this to Lance. 

Still, wings and mind itching to fly, Keith reached a hand to touch the framed picture in front of him. Little Lance –probably eight or nine years old- stood between a beautiful woman with curly, brown hair and green eyes and a man with blue eyes and a funny hairstyle. They both looked so happy. Behind the trio stood two lean teenage girls, one had a pixie cut, the other had her wavy hair loose down to her waist. It looked awfully like they preferred such different hairstyles so that people would stop confusing them. Next to them stood a tall boy with broad shoulders, clearly older than them. All had sparkling brown skin. _So this picture is before Lance’s nieces and nephews came into their lives._

Keith’s eyes lingered on Lance’s father. Keith had background information about all the people in the picture- except him. He had one arm twisted slightly back, his daughter standing behind him holding his hand. His other hand was wrapped securely around Lance’s tiny waist. Lance told him that he was a skinny child- all lanky limbs. He was looking at the camera from behind his glasses, eyes looking like they were seeing Keith’s soul. Even behind the picture.

Keith backed away, plopping down on the sofa bed. He tried to imagine how the McClain family was before the children grew up and flew from the nest to start their own lives away. Lance had told him that he used to braid his older sister’s hair despite his height being equal to her hair’s length. Lance had also told him how his brother used to pick him up, swing him around all the while narrating a spaceship launch. Lance had told Keith how he dreamt of being an astronaut when he was little.

Hours rolled around as he dreamt and thought and imagined. He was washing yesterday’s dishes with his mind elsewhere when Lance returned home. Hunk asked if could use Lance’s car for a couple of days, so Lance took the bus. 

“Hi!” He greeted shortly as Blue took off and flew around the flat, her leash following her, still connected to her body. 

“Hey,” Keith turned his head to look at him. He was wearing the scarf his mother knitted that day, he had one earbud in it’s place, the other unplugged and dangling. And he was glowing.

The plate slipped between Keith’s hand down to the sink, loudly. Angels could see people’s glow when they had their magic. Every person had a different glow-some didn’t have any. The glow indicated the kindness, the goodness inside the person and guardian angels were taught to lure their assigned person away from people who didn’t glow. It was an optional power, an angel could look at other’s glows and then will their sight to be normal. It was something they could turn off when they were not using it. Since Keith didn’t see any other people during the day, he forgot to shut it down.

And now Lance was standing in the hallway, a smirk on his lips as he formed a sentence the angel couldn’t quite hear, and he was glowing more than anyone Keith had ever seen.

 

“Okay. A fun fact about Heaven: We have a well we look down on and watch the Earth. It is open for guardian angels and angels in training.” One day Keith had said.

Lance had raised both of his eyebrows then:

“Really? Did you see me?”

Keith had stiffled a laugh.

“I’d remember you if I had seen you.” He had answered boldly.

Lance had giggled. _Oh boy he giggled._

“Cheesy.” The brunette had commented. “Speaking of cheese, do you love it? Is there cheese in Heaven? I bet there is- like the big round ones that are made in France... I love cheese.”

 

Keith willed his sight normal as he blinked. “Uh-sorry, didn’t hear you.” He murmured as he heard Lance’s footsteps approaching.

“I asked how was your day,” Lance came to a stop next to him, bowing down a little to take a closer look at the shorter male. “You okay, Mullet?” 

“Yeah, why are you asking?” Keith said, picking up the plate he dropped. He exhaled with relief when he saw it was still in one piece. _He was glowing g o l d e n._

“You kind of gasped and dropped a plate at the sight of me as if we’re in a fanfiction or something. Do I look that good?” Lance delivered in a smooth tone alongside an eyebrow wiggle.

“What the quiznack is a _fanfiction_ ? Plus, you look like you were packed in a real tight place and got elbowed in the guts.” Keith scoffed. _He was glowing so bright, so powerful._

“Keith, honey, that is what public transportation exactly is.” The taller man answered finally backing away. “Hey! I was listening to one of my old playlists on the way home and this one song came up,” he made a dramatic pause as he peeled away his coat and threw it recklessly on the counter island separating the kitchen and the living room. “And it reminded me of you.” 

Keith set the now clean plate aside, turning his body to Lance. The human had grabbed a towel and took a step towards the angel in the meantime. Lance started drying off Keith’s hands. They were surprisingly good at working together. They were a good team.

“Let me hear it.” Keith said, thanking every spiritual being he knew that angels blushed real hard. “Plus, you clean the dishes tomorrow.”

“Aye aye captain.” Lance chuckled, eyes still on the towel he was drying Keith’s hands with. “The song goes like this:” He threw the towel on his shoulder, deciding that he dried enough. The blank, fuzzy object looked like it had a greater meaning on Lance’s shoulder.

“You’re an angel fallen down,” He started singing, his voice was good.

“Won’t you tell us of the clouds?” Scratch that, his voice was _great._

“You have fallen from the sky,” Lance continued, gazing into Keith’s eyes.

“ **How high, how high?** ” He tilted his head to the side slightly, a sparkle burning in his eyes as he looked at Keith like he was a blessing from Heaven.

Keith blushed then, bowing his head down and smiling broadly to the ground between their feet. Which-for the record- was a really little ground.

“How does the song continue?” Keith questioned softly, still looking to the ground.

“Hm?” Lance asked. He looked distracted when Keith looked up at him.

“The song.” The angel said. “How’s the rest of it go?”

Lance’s face fell at that one.

Over the time they shared together, Keith saw Lance happy, Keith saw Lance sad, stressed, excited. They haven’t talked anything openly but Keith hated the look of hurt on Lance. It didn’t suit him at all.

“Uh- The singer says ‘Tell our dad I’m sorry.’ ” He answered as he took a step back. He sounded like he wanted this conversation done already. Not only he never spoke of his dad, he avoided every road leading to him.

“Lance.” Keith said surely. He reached out and held both of his hands. The tan palms were so warm against the angel’s much paler, and colder, ones. “Lance, what happened to your dad?”

Lance actually startled. He snaked his hands away from Keith’s grasp as he slightly jumped. Blue blue eyes now scared, looked away, at anywhere but Keith.

“I- uh... I’d rather not talk about it.” He said before working his long legs and backing away to the hall, probably to reach his room.

Keith sighed deeply, he adored what he had with Lance. They bickered and even argued the first days but now everything was smooth between them. _That’s because we never speak of touchy stuff._

He wanted to be mad at Lance, he really did, but he couldn’t get himself to do it. After all, Keith hadn’t uttered a single word about his family to Lance. He heard his brother’s voice briefly in his mind: _“Some things are delicate, Keith. You can’t swing and cut your way into everything.”_ And honestly? It was better than his _“Patience yields focus.”_ stuff. Keith was focused, back in school and training especially. He was focused but it never originated from patience. It always originated from Keith’s burning desire to show everyone that murmured and whispered about him to his back that he indeed, could do anything he set his mind into. It always worked.

Long story short, Keith wasn’t patient. At all. But to make up for that: He was persuative. 

Bracing his hands flat on the counter for a second, he pushed himself up to go talk to Lance. He had an idea.

Lance turned the corner, appearing in the hallway with loose, home clothing. He was still frowning but he put up an act by smiling when he saw Keith.

“Do you want to fly?” Keith asked, not missing a beat in stepping in Lance’s personal space. Sharing the sofa bed was an advantage: He was always invited to Lance’s personal space.

“What?” Lance asked, voice lifting up into a chuckle slightly.

Keith smirked. 

“You see, human-“ Lance hated when he called him that.

“Lance.” He corrected Keith.

“Well, you see, I have a part of my powers back. Like when I fixed the window back in the facility.” The angel tipped his chin up, daring Lance to join his enthusiasm on this one. 

Lance smirked down to him, face still painted in disbelief and stress still laying in his undertones. “And you’re suggesting that we fly? How’s that gonna happen?”

Keith’s smirked grew then, turning his expression into a mischief Lance couldn’t stay away. 

“I’ll spell us both invisible.”

Lance laughed a bit hesitantly. He braced one hand on Keith’s shoulder when he didn’t laugh alongside him. The makeshift shirt wrinkled under his touch. Keith was okay being topless but Lance wasn’t really okay with Keith being topless. It was distracting. So he cut the backside of one his shirts off completely, leaving four strings –two over the spot his wings joined his skin and two down on his waistline- of cloth behind him to tie the shirt in place. It was pretty much like an apron. It was an old red shirt and it was small for Lance anyways.

“You’re serious.” Lance commented. Keith nodded excitedly.

“Go grab your coat.” He simply said, grinning at Lance’s expression.

“Wait-“ He walked over to take his coat back from the island counters he threw it on to. “We are _actually_ doing this?” He quickly got his coat on, eyes never leaving Keith. “Like, how will you know the duration we will be invisible?” He had a lopsided smile on his face. He probably wasn’t going to believe that it’s happening until they were flowing in the evening sky. He came back to stand in front of Keith again, excitement evident in his movements. 

“Are you done?” Keith asked amusedly.

“Actually...” Lance started and brought a hand to scrath at his temple. Keith rose one eyebrow up. “No. Okay. I’ll shut up now.” Lance chuckled. The little boy inside Lance peeked up like this sometimes, making Keith’s heart clutch itself.

“Good.” Keith said. He held his hands up between him and Lance, palms facing the ceiling. “Now, I’ll spell us invisible. It will last until tomorrow morning. I’ll feel it because I am the one who’ll make the spell.” Lance nodded quickly and held Keith’s hand, understanding the clear body language.

Now, it wasn’t necessary for them to hold hands. Keith could do the spell without touching Lance. He could do this easy spell with eyes closed. But Keith was gay. End of the discussion.

“Will it hurt?” Lance asked, he had one eye closed, the other peeking at Keith, scared.

“Um-“ Keith started.

“How will it feel? Like, will it tickle?”

“Actually-“ The angel tried.

“No, okay! Don’t say! I’m ready.” The taller man exclaimed, both eyes closed now, faced scruched in anticipation.

“Lance?” Keith prompted.

“Yeah?” He opened one eye again.

“I already made the spell.” Keith said.

“OH!” Lance’s shoulders dropped in relief. “OKAy- Nice.” He chuckled awkwardly. A blush was creeping up his neck when he snatched his hands away from Keith’s.

The angel bit down his lip to stop himself from laughing:

“Let’s go then?” He asked more than stated.

“Let’s go, Mullet!” Lance smiled.

 

They stepped into the cold street all in their odd glory. Lance was buried in his coat, he had pajama bottoms under that. Keith... Well Keith had wings. No one spared them a single glance. Lance giggled.

“It’s actually working!” He whispered, leaning close to Keith.

“What were you expecting?” Keith smirked. Of course the spell was working. Keith had done it so many times in his life, he was one to sneak into places.

People around them carried on without a clue. They were hurrying their ways back to their homes, they were shuffling into stores, they were beelining on the pavements, fast walkers maneuvering their paths around slower ones.Everything looked like the sky had poured down a buckle of dark blue paint water as sun bid a goodbye to the city, taking it’s orange to lilac glow away with itself.

Shops turned their lights on, straying people closer like lightbulbs luring moths in. Keith marveled at how different everything was from Heaven. Evenings in Heaven were all purple shades. Some angels spelled themselves alight to shine under the dying light. The white marbles shone as if reflecting the day, replaying what they witnessed. Gold around the city turned into daring crimsons, showing no sincerity. But here on Earth, everything existed with it’s mistakes, giving temporality a meaning and beauty.

He turned his head to look at Lance: His freckles had shyed away in the evening glow since they were sun’s gifts to Lance’s skin. His eyes reflected the yellow lights from the street lamps, turning his gaze mysterious. The breeze toyed with his hair, picking strands up then putting them elsewhere. Lance slowly turned his head to Keith, swaying back and forth excitedly on his feet.

“So?” He softly urged. Keith smiled as he reached both hands, taking Lance’s bigger ones in. _We’re holding hands a lot. Why is he bothering taking them back every time?_

And without a warning, he took off. Strong wings pushed against the breeze, hoisting both his and Lance’s weights up.

Lance yelped as he clutched on Keith’s hands.

“What are you doing?” He yelled. Thankfully, the spell was omitting the voices too. “You’re gonna kill us both!”

Keith manuevered between tents of the shops, causing Lance’s body to slightly graze one.

“Shut up and trust me!” He called back. In no time, they landed on their -Lance’s- apartment’s roof. 

Lance broke the contact again:

“What was that?” He looked really scared, eyes wide for the second time that evening. “Give a guy a warning first! Geez!” He put one hand on his heart.

“We literally got out of the house to fly.” Keith stated, shrugging.

“But still-“ Lance’s voice trailed off when Keith opened his wings widely. Now the ornithologist really saw the resemblence his wings had with an owl’s. “Woah.” He breathed.

The feathers approximately had the same height everywhere, except the layers of shorter ones it had near the top of the wings-where the bones where located. The previously broken area had healed up so well that it took even Lance’s trained eyes a bit of time to notice the slight crook there. The beige and brown tones looked darker and less detailed in the poor yet poetic lightning the moon was starting to provide. Keith looked ethereal. Even without the wings, his pointy chin and kind of small nose, the little faint scar next to his right eyebrow, his now indigo eyes, the smile curved on his chapped lips... all looked unearthly gorgeous to Lance.

“Are you calm now?” Keith turned his body to him, sending his wings slightly swaying and causing the feathers to sing their hushed song. Lance was having a hard time looking away from the wings.

“Hey!” Keith half heartedly called. “My eyes are down here.” He said, voice wavering with a laugh making his way out of his chest.

Lance snorted alongside a loud exhale:

“Yeah sorry... Your wings are fascinating though.”

Keith looked away briefly as Lance lowered his gaze to Keith’s eyes. 

“Where do you want to go?” He quietly asked.

“Well... Anywhere is good as long as we’re flying.” Lance smiled one of his small smiles. “BUT- but, I don’t want to dangle like that again.” His tone quickly turned serious. He even had one hand up, accusedly pointing at Keith. 

Keith chuckled before walking to the edge of the roof and turning his back to Lance. Oh how he had missed flying.

“Jump on my back, I think that would be easier.” He directed Lance over his shoulder.

Lance closed the gap between them with a couple of hesitant steps.

“Are you sure? I’m not that light.” Lance leaned forward to see Keith’s expression. All he saw was the angel rolling his eyes.

“I’m going to pretend like I didn’t hear that.” Keith answered, taking his eyes from Lance-which was always a hard thing to do.

“Okay okay.” He heard him chuckle before feeling his palms place themselves momentarily on Keith’s shoulders. He used this hold to hoist himself up and place his body kind of on Keith’s back. His arms circled loosely around Keith’s neck, his knees were planted on each side of the angel, feet joined by the ankles over Keith’s belly. Just like Keith was giving Lance a piggyback ride, only difference being the fact that Keith had two gigantic wings.

Lance estimated that when Keith fully opened his wings they took up a good four meters. So none of his feathers were really squished between his and Lance’s body. But Lance could feel the spots Keith’s wings joined his back. He tried not to think about it much. Plus, every coherent thought vanished from his mind when Keith took a step forward and jumped off the building only to clap his wings and fly off second later.

 

Lance had to admit, he never experienced something quite like this before. First kiss filling himself up with this giddy excitement? Making him sway on his feet? No, that had nothing on the feeling of literally flying. Actually, nothing metaphorical could replace the feeling of breeze caressing Lance’s skin, the freedom it gave overall, the way wind tired to grab at his clothes, the sound of giant feathers moving with every clap and dive Keith made, nothing could replace it.

And Keith was practically beaming as they flowed through the night sky and bounced on rooftops. They went on and on until moon danced its way away from the sky, calling sun to the stage, to take its place.And they flew until the purple splotched, navy blue colored sky decorated with stars got lifted up to reveal softer gradients of multiple warmer colors as the night neared to an ending.

Lance had pointed and named the constellations when they sat down at a rooftop once.

Keith had pulled a nosedive at one point, sending Lance’s poor heart hammering.

And hours later, they returned where they started their little journey:

They sat down on Lance’s buildings’ rooftop, not quite dangling their feet but not actually away from the edge.

Lance scooted a bit closer to Keith:

“Should we head in?” His voice was soft as if he was in a dream and couldn’t risk waking himself up. Keith smiled distantly as his eyes roamed the parts of the horizon he could pick up from the city skyline.

“Let’s stay a bit longer, watch the sunrise.” He answered, voice equally soft to respect the moment they were sharing. Keith breathed in, closing his eyes. It has been a fairly long time since he stepped outside. It wasn’t anyones fault, it was how the situation was but Keith wished he could go out freely with Lance. He had a way of making things better and just more fun.

 

“A plane!” He had gasped. “Go catch it, Keith!”

“You want me to narrate stuff? That stray cat is totally seeing through your spell and watching us, I’m telling you.” He had giggled.

“I’ve pulled many all-nighters in my life, Keith the Angel, but this is by far the best one.” He had gasped.

 

Keith opened his eyes again to see Lance trembling with the cold. So Keith did what any other genteman angel would do. He draped a wing over Lance’s back. He immediately stopped shivering.

“They’re so soft?” Lance gasped as he brought a hand up to touch the wing that was blanketing him from the cold. 

Keith turned his head away from Lance. Just like the soft yellowish lights from the newly waking up sun colored them golden, everything was fine. All was well. Because they weren’t talking through any of their problems. Everyone always scolded Keith for burying his issues, for never dealing with them. But, oh Heaven, Lance was worse than him on that one. He spoke with ease. But never about what he should voice.

Keith’s mind spiraled back to the same spot again, the spot on the right bottom of the framed picture. The spot Lance’s father took on the family portrait.

 

When they both headed in, Keith’s heart picked up the drumsticks and started pummeling down to his rib cage. He had to tell him. Lance deserved to know. But he didn’t want to lose him. He didn’t want to lie to Lance too. But what if Lance kicked him out after hearing that- what would other people do to Keith? People who had no glow, they were out there right? They could just-

“Lance?” Keith choked out when they were both in the hallway. The human turned quickly at him then, trying to catch Keith’s eyes. “Lance.” Keith repeated, gulping and finally looking up at him. He suddenly felt so small.

“What’s wrong?” Lance asked, ever so softly. It made Keith’s stomach squrim. He was hiding the information from him why was Lance doing all these kind things to him? Why did he looked genuinely concerned?

“Keith?” Lance placed one hand on the angel’s arm, rubbing at it relaxingly. Keith had no option. He _had_ to tell him.

“I remember your father.” Keith gasped out all at once.

Lance’s face immediately twisted with distaste. He looked like he was tattering between anger and shock. He was probably feeling both.

“What are you talking about?” Lance asked-no demanded. His hand was shaking, still on Keith’s arm.

“My brother...” Keith looked away for a second before looking back at Lance. This only urged Lance on, judging by how his hand absentmindedly, slightly shook Keith’s arm. “...was his guardian angel.” Keith delivered finally.

For a second, Lance only searched Keith’s eyes. For anything indicating that this wasn’t real. But his initial shock left it’s place to fury in a quick transition. _Are there tears in his eyes?_

“Well,” His voice was strained. He let out an insincere, wet laugh. “Your brother isn’t really great at this job, is he now?” 

With one blink, two rebellious tears strolled down Lance’s cheeks. His grip on Keith was borderline hurting. _No, no, no, please no._ But Keith caught himself speaking before he even realized:

“He lost _an arm_ trying to save your father!” Keith’s voice was loud even to his own ears. He forcefully took his arm back from Lance’s grasped. “He has a haunting scar on his face to this day!” 

More tears formed at Lance’s eyes as the seconds ticked. The tears were polite enough to pool in his eyes before falling first so Lance found the time to aggressively.

“Why are you telling me this?” Lance shouted back. Keith winced at the awfully hurt crack in his voice. Keith’s heart was still drumming in his ears.

“Why are you hiding it away?” Keith countered. He wanted nothing more than to pick up this boy’s broken parts and place them where they should be. But only Lance himself and time could to this.

“What do you want?” Lance didn’t bother wiping the tears off again. They fell freely like the venom dripping in his voice. “To remind me that my father is gone? Lost to a car crash? Well good job then, you succeeded.”

And Keith never learnt when to stop.

“Lance, don’t you see? I understand you.” He whispered, feeling his own tears threatening to spill. As is someone snapped a finger, Lance’s entire demeanour changed. He slouched forward, arms wrapping weakly at Keith’s sides.

“I’m so sorry.” Lance whispered back. Keith blinked once, twice, before holding Lance. “I’m so sorry, Keith. I’m sorry about your parents, I’m sorry that your brother is hurt.” He repeated like a mantra as Keith slowly felt a wetness covering his shirts’s shoulder, right where Lance’s face is.

“It’s okay.” He tried to shush back, his own voice betraying him. “It’s okay, Lance. Look at me.” Keith said as he pushed Lance off gently to look at his face. He ended up placing a hand to Lance’s cheek because fuck it, the man was crying his heart out and Keith’s heart couldn’t bare it.

“Why don’t you-“ He cleared his throat when his voice cracked. “Why don’t you call today off from work and we talk about... all of this?” Keith asked. He had no idea how to talk through it but he wanted only a few things as much as he wanted to take this burden off Lance.

Lance tiredly nodded, clearing his throat and sniffling a “Let’s do that.”

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> i... i know this was originally fluff, sorry and i tried my best to make it realistic yet not that angsty. Hope you enjoyed!
> 
> the song Lance sings is Ruby by Twenty One Pilots.
> 
> find me on twitter: @ livennadin


	5. Open Up

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> of teary eyed talks to laughter filled rooms, Lance and Keith's journey goes on in a single flat

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> lance talks about someone he lost to a car crash, there is no descriptions of the accident but if you wish you can skip the part by starting from
> 
> “The thing is: I didn’t really interacted with my father. For long years I pondered if I actually love him or not.” The brunette’s face was folded and wrinkled with hurt and a grimace for himself.

“It’s just... I-“

Keith’s hands were in his much darker ones, hoisting Lance to the sofa.

“I don’t know where to start...”

Purple eyes full of fondness encouraged him on silently.

“He- He was-“

A sob made its wicked way out of Lance’s throat. An angelic voice started murmuring things the ornithologist’s spinning head couldn’t quite catch.

“I can’t do this.” Lance whispered in one hurried, desperate breath. He burnt and buried everything that reminded him of his father, of the day he left, many years prior to now. Lance locked away the way his little heart felt as his eight years old self hoped maybe dad would visit him in his dreams, long ago. He lied to himself. Every day. Plus his dad did visit him in his dreams, only Lance didn’t call them dreams, he called them nightmares.

He couldn’t just blurt it all out now, could he?

“Yes you can.” Keith repeated when Lance didn’t react the first two times. This time the brunette shook his head as a reply. “Lance. Look at me.” Keith softly placed his hands on both sides of Lance’s face.

“You have to face it, okay? You can’t hide away from it all.”

Lance started shaking his head no again. Keith held a little tighter, lifted his head a little higher so that Lance was looking in his eyes.

“It’s only hurting you more like this.” The angel pleaded ever so softly. _I can’t stand seeing you like this._

Lance’s shoulders shook weakly as he slammed his eyelids shut. Tears reached Keith’s thumbs in a second.

It was awful. Seeing the man who was favored by the sun, who was welcomed by the stars, who had a heart that can fit the whole world in it like this was awful. Keith wanted nothing but to see Lance smile one of his genuine smiles again. But he knew this issue must be addressed. Because it was no simple heartbreak anymore-it was bottled up, beaten down hurt that run deep.

“He- uh, he died when I was eight?” Lance choked out, uncertain. “He died when I was eight.” He repeated.

“Okay,” Keith said, whispering. They were yelling at each other just a couple of minutes ago and Keith would take this soft whispers over yelling anytime. He never wanted to do that again.

“I- I remember mom getting a phone call.” 

Somehow more tears spilled out after that declaration.

Lance remembered very clearly. His mother’s phone had rang in the kitchen, causing her to leave the children who were watching TV in the living room to go get her phone. Lance remembered how his brother’s shoulders had tensed when their mother’s wavering voice reached them. “What?” He remembered how all of them, the four siblings, had turned to look at their mother who was standing in the hallway, frozen. “My husband- what?” 

The sound of her mother’s phone slipping from her fingers onto the ground was etched in Lance’s mind. But seeing his mother herself collapsing onto the floor was far more horrifying.

Lance remembered how his brother, oldest of the batch, had shot up to his feet, followed by his sisters. “Mom! Mom! Please open your eyes.” “Lance-Lance go next door, tell aunt to come here quick! Go! Run!”

He forced the words out of his lips:

“I ran to my aunt’s. She lived next door.”

Lance remembered how his small hands had grasped his aunt’s, dragging her out with a sob already on his throat as his heart hammered his little chest. “Mama fainted- please help tia- Her phone rang! I-I’m scared.” 

“She and her husband came in. She- she panicked too...” Keith wiped away the tears carefully as Lance spoke. “They called an ambulance.” 

Lance returned to the start of his story and told Keith the details too. He told how the police officer on the other side of the line repeatedly called out. “Miss? Miss are you there?” He told Keith how the officer’s voice was a scratchy whisper coming from her mother’s phone until his aunt’s husband took the phone from the ground and answered.

Lance told how their aunt first told them that their dad was injured and in the hospital when actually he had lost his life in the car. Lance told how the medics took their mother after hoisting her in a stretcher.

“I was scared of phone calls for _years_ after that.” Lance spoke. Keith continuously rubbed soft circles on Lance’s cheeks with his thumbs. Tears seemed to calm down for a while or Lance was just exhausted, Keith could not decide which one was the case. 

Lance told how their aunt and her husband took care of them for that rough, rough week. 

Lance told how _every single relative_ seemed to arrive in the following week for the funeral. 

“I absolutely hated how sombre the air in the home was.” He sniffled. Keith took a deep breath to present his condolences, probably, but Lance cut him off sharply.

“The thing is: I didn’t really interacted with my father. For long years I pondered if I actually love him or not.” The brunette’s face was folded and wrinkled with hurt and a grimace for himself. He had never told these besides the therapist. “And I used to stray away from him every time he invited me to do something together. I-“ His voice betrayed him as he hung his head low and started crying again. _I pushed him away. Every single time._

“Lance-“ Keith tried but a croaky voice accompanied by shaking hands weakly pushing Keith’s away silenced him. The angel placed his hands on his lap, thinking maybe Lance needed some space.

“He wasn’t the easiest person to approach you know... And that day I didn’t talk to him _at all._ I was angry over something stupid! I don’t even remember what- If I knew, if I knew...” Lance trailed off again, another wave of tears rocking his slender body. His breath caught up on his throat, clogging his guilt dripped ramble, his pain embroidered confession.

Keith scooted close to him then, put one hand on his shoulder and another hand on his cheek. He maneuvered Lance’s body into a hug by pulling him to his chest. Lance immediately crumbled into the position. He buried one side of his face into the angel’s chest, tears lazily leaving his now burning eyes to be captured by Keith’s t-shirt.

Keith’s arms held Lance in place as Lance’s arms clutched onto Keith’s torso. “There was no way you could have known.” Keith declared then, pulling Lance’s attention to himself, away from the memories.

“You were just a child Lance, you wouldn’t be cold to your father if there was no reason. There _must_ be something that affected you.” He placed his chin on top of Lance’s head as the man in his arms brokenly sniffled.

“My therapist says that too.” 

Keith hummed shortly, prompting Lance to talk more, maybe direct them both in a path his therapist showed him. But Lance shifted away until he was looking into Keith’s eyes and spoke clearly:

“Tell me about your family.” 

It was very Lance, really: To change topics as if they rode a roller coaster, to ask about someone else even when he was pulling apart at the seams. 

Keith fidgeted, jaw clenching automatically.

“Hey,” Lance spoke as his hands flew up to either sides of Keith’s jawline, touching softly. “Don’t do that.” He had a determined crease between his eyebrows. Still, he had a certain degree of sadness in his movements. 

Keith felt his heart pick up pace. They both weren’t the most open ones out there, but Lance trusted Keith enough to cry in front of him, tell him his story that left a scar. It was only fair for Lance to learn about Keith’s family. The angel drew a short breath in.

“I never knew my mother. My dad sacrificed himself for his assigned human.”

Lance took a sharp breath and flinched. Keith knew how the whole thing goes. He would tell someone his story, they woud look uncomfortable as if Keith’s existence reminded them of how some angels had it worse than them. But it was never the case actually. Keith knew that his past was his alone, he was simply telling the story because they asked him to. There was always going to be someone who had it worse. But that never meant their experiences were less important.

“I was given to foster families. Absolutely hated them all.” Keith chuckled, voice far away from light or enthusiastic. Lance retracted his warm hands and placed them on Keith’s shoulders. 

Keith bit his tongue at the memories but he willed his mouth to work as fast as his mind. He filtered it all enough in his long angel years. No more.

He told Lance as much as he remembered. He was five. His father tried his best to make Keith not feel the absence of his mother. It was bits and pieces but Keith remembered his father teaching Keith about daggers, knives and swords while never letting his chubby palms land on one. He told Lance how he didn’t quite understand that his father wasn’t coming back home. He told how he thought the foster families were play dates where his dad would come and pick him up.

Keith told the anger blossoming in his chest after the age of ten, nearing his adolesence. He told how he used to pick up fights, how he never talked to his foster parents. How he learned to clench his jaw, seal his lips closed early on, never letting anything away.

Lance nodded as he listened intently, smiling bitterly at certain parts. Keith told him about the three angels that changed his life in the best way possible then. Told him how patient they were, how eternally grateful Keith was. Told him how quickly his big brother made a place in his heart. Told him how they taught him that success was the best revenge.

“I was top of my classes, in every school after that.” Keith chuckled again, this time meaning it.

The moment he stopped talking, Lance threw himself to Keith in a warm hug.

“I’m so proud of you, you know. You’re so strong.” He said, still hushed in respect to the moment they were sharing.

Now that was the final straw. No one besides his adoptive family told him that they were proud of him. Everyone saw Keith’s past as something he lacks, and maybe it was true. Maybe Keith really did lack the earlier warmth of a complete family, but that shouldn’t have shadowed what Keith gained and how much he grew over the time. Lance was the only one acknowledging this beside his brother.

And there was something in the way Lance said it; in awe of Keith of how far he had come, grateful that Keith found the strength in himself to carry on. And deep down, they both understood that only someone who truly cared about the other could master the warmth in his voice. Tears pooled in the angel’s eyes, shocking Lance when the brunette eventually broke the hug.

“Keith? Why are you crying?” 

“Shut up, I’m emotional.” He choked out a wet laugh involuntarily. That caused Lance to grin, still seated comfortably in Keith’s lap.

“By the way, I converted my age to human years when telling you the story.” Keith sighed a little. Some distraction and changing of topics was affordable now, he thought. Lance was in his arms, Lance’s warm hands were on his shoulders after spending the whole night flying with Lance. It was far too good. For a second Keith felt like the years he struggled –suffered- could be paying for better years to come. 

“Oh wow, how old are you? In Earth years?” Lance piped up, clearly catching on Keith’s intentions. Two windows opening to oceans that Lance called his eyes looked up at Keith who was colored in soft reds and oranges and yellows by the early rays of sun.

Keith quickly did the math, his tongue making an appereance in the short focusing time. 

“Twenty five.”

Lane hummed as his lips curved into a smile slightly:

“You’re a year older than me.”

“Am I now?” Keith whispered, eyes traveling on Lance’s face, a content smile on his own. He felt lighter now that he told Lance about his family. He felt better now he knew that guilt was what essentially hurt Lance. _We can work on that._

“Yeah...” Lance smiled one again, searching Keith’s eyes before he detached his body from the angel’s. Both were eager to leave the emotional moments behind.

“I should call Dave –he’s one of my collagues- and tell him I won’t be able to make it today. My head is killing me.”

 

After informing the facility, Lance downed a fair amount of water alongside a painkiller and he eventually dozed off on the sofa bed. Keith sat next to him with a book in his lap as he hastily read over the words. He’d take this over yelling any day.

 

Lance’s ringtone sliced through the comfortable silence after some hours and Blue –very sharply- let them know that she did not appreciate this with her screams. She was perched on top of one of Keith’s wings. She seemed to like the spot and she seemed to like Keith too, welcoming the scratches and touches the angel’s fingertips delibaretly provided.

“Ugh, Blue!” Keith whined. She was screaming too close to his ears.

Lance shot up, choking on his own salvia as he flung his body to the source of the unpleasant sound. He wobbled on his feet and looked adorably disoriantated. 

Keith chuckled as Lance fumbled with his phone, sleep dripping from his eyes.

 

“Hunk?” He greeted the man on the other side of the line.

“Hey Lance, just as I thought: Your voice is coming off awful.” Hunk spoke sounding concerned. Very concerned.

“I was sleeping.” Lance mumbled as he scrubbed one eyelid gently.

“Yeah?” His best friend continued and Lance could pretty much picture the worried expression the chef wore. “Dave texted. Told you called the day off.”

The ornithologist hummed. Hunk and Pidge had asked Dave who Lance was the closest to in work to update them on Lance stuff.

“It’s uh- I was up all night, couldn’t really stomach the thought of work.” He chuckled. Now, Lance lied and acted enough in his life to get past this one if it wasn’t Hunk. But no. Pidge and Hunk knew him inside out, they were never fooled. Even when technically, it wasn’t a lie, Hunk still picked up on the strain on his voice.

“I’ve been feeling like something’s off with you lately-“

“Hunk, I’m okay.”

“Are you? You don’t sound very convincing.”

Lance took a deep breath:

“I _will be_ okay.”

He heard some shifting on the other side of the line. It probably was Hunk lending the phone to his other hand to do his anxious pose _but with his other arm now._

“I _do not_ like this secrecy, Lance. Tell me what’s up.” His childhood friend demanded. 

“Nothing! Really, I’m okay-“

“Lance. I’m picking up my sister and her little bean to see a movie after my shift. Do you want to come?”

The ornithologist smiled at that. He had the best people as his friends.

“No, no! It’s okay, thank you! You enjoy the movie-“

“Then I’m canceling it to come see you after work-“

“No! Hunk, I swear I’m okay.” Lance started pacing in the small area his kitchen provided.

“Yeah sure, I _know_ that voice Lance. Have you even been sleeping?” Hunk huffed a breath and Lance stopped in his tracks.

“I have!” He flailed his empty arm up and around, causing Keith to raise one eyebrow as he watched him. “Thank you for thinking of me this much but don’t worry about me, buddy” 

Hunk full on sighed at that. A real, exasperated sigh. Him and Pidge always told Lance to stop trying to tell them what to feel about him when Lance deemed himself unworthy of their love.

“You know I worry about you-“ Hunk’s next words were distant, clearly not directed at Lance. “How on earth did you manage to burn a _salad?_ ” Another sigh with a hint of a grunt. “I gotta go before a fire starts. Take care Lance.”

Lance chuckled lightly. He knew very well that Hunk was going to inform Pidge to check up on him.

“Go before the interns ruin everything. And stop worrying. I’m okay.” He spoke, a little more energized now that he was reminded that life went on, out of his mind and out of his flat. Life kept on unraveling and tangling at the same time.

“You better be okay!” Hunk called out before he hung up.

 

Lance’s long legs carried him back to the sofa bed where he plopped down dramatically next to Keith.

“Keeeeeiiiiith,” He whined, face pressed into the scrunched Star Wars sheets.

“That’s me.” The angel answered flatly.

Lance made a noise between an imitation of a cry and a choked back laugh. “I want to continue sleeping.”

Keith chuckled before biting his lower lip as he watched Lance exaggerately flipped himself on his back.

“Oh, that’s a big thing, Lance- I’m at a loss for words... Maybe, maybe try closing your eyes?” Keith made a show with a playfully puzzled voice. Next to him, Lance broke out laughing. But that didn’t stop him from smacking the angel swiftly with a pillow.

“Oh yeah! How could I not thought of that?” Lance gasped, trails of a laugh evident in the way he spoke.

Keith shrugged as he easily got the pillow that was smashed on his face seconds ago from its previous owner. “I’m not sure.” He planted the pillow on Lance’s grinning face. “You tend to not think sometimes.”

“That’s not true!” The ornithologist’s voice was muffled from under the pillow in contrast to Keith’s clear laugh ringing in the flat.

 

As the evening rolled around like a cloth being draped over the city skyline, Lance had already fell asleep to and woke up from his second nap.

It was dark out as blue eyes blinked up to the bland ceiling. Apparently, Keith switched the lights on. Lance blinked rapidly as the artificial light bore into his skull. There was the smooth voice of a knife gliding. Keith was peeling apples next to him, Lance found out when he turned to his side.

“Hey.” He greeted Keith, who muffled something incoherent around the fruits he stuffed into his mouth. Lance laughed slightly as he ran his hands over his face. Trust his angel with manners...

“So,” Lance sat up. “Can’t peel apples in the dark? Don’t have any respect to sleeping people?” He allowed himself to grin. It was weird how _better_ he felt compared to the early morning of the same day.

Keith huffed, not even bothering to look up at Lance as he was peeling and reading the wide open book on the sofa at the same time. “I can peel these with my eyes closed.” He raised his gaze up to Lance slowly. His purple eyes never ceased to amaze him. “Plus, you needed to wake up if you have any hopes of getting sleep tonight.” He shrugged with a flourish, eyes scanning Lance _lovingly?_

Lance took a deep breath to speak as electricty decided it was the time to went off. Thankfully Blue was already sleeping in her cage so they didn’t need to search for her.

“Oops.” He whispered as his eyes tried their best to adjust to the sudden darkness.

“Does this happen regularly?” He heard Keith’s calm voice coming from somewhere next to him. 

“Nope,” Lance sighed out as he dangled his feet from the sofa. “There are candles in the kitchen cabinet.” He explained as he tried to make his way to the mentioned room. Emphasis on tried. 

He cursed pretty loudly when he jabbed his side into the evil, decieving, plain cruel corner of the island counter. 

 

Lance groaned when he made his way back to the sofa bed with a lighter and three cheap candles in his hands: “Was that fucker always this sharp?”

As Lance set the candles alight one by one, giving one to Keith to place it on the coffee table, putting one back on the bookshelf behind him and letting one stay on the sofa at a safe distance, the angel watched his face in the red, dancing light. _He looks good with_ every _lightning. Ugh._

“This is romantic.” Lance smiled. The small flames were casting tall, trembling shadows over them. 

Lance knew about it all. He knew Keith loved him. He’d been watching him fall for him for a while now. If nothing, the angel was really bold at certain points, never sparing Lance from his fond, fond eyes and soft smiles. And, God, did Lance want to return the actions. He was practically itching for the angel. But he was destined to leave. He belonged in Heaven even though Lance was pretty sure he belonged in an art museum to be preserved and gaped at, not to shuffle around judgemental angels.

The way Keith smiled at Lance, the way he _blushed,_ the way he touched Lance, cautious as if the brunette was forbidden to him, when he thought the other was asleep... Lance knew it all. And he felt so selfish for not stopping Keith. But how could he? How could he, when he already broke his own heart into pieces and handed every piece to Keith with time?

He gave a piece of his heart away when Keith trusted him back in the facility. He gave a piece of his heart away every time Keith’s eyebrows furrowed slightly as he read book after book, getting angry with or at the characters, every time the angel greeted him home and asked about his day and _listened_ with his everything, every time Keith made sure to prepare everything in doubles to share with Lance...

Now Lance feared he had handed his heart completely to the angel, bit by bit over the course of the time they spent together. What he had more to give, besides the fact that he returned Keith’s feelings?

Oh, he’d give Keith _everything_ with a single word of his. And it scared Lance. Even though he knew Keith was eventually going to leave him, he was ready for his heart to be taken away all the way to Heaven with Keith holding it in his hands if it meant he could hold Keith before that. Plus, if Lance learnt anything that morning it was to not bottle everything up. In addition to that, maybe Keith knew of a way that angels and humans could work out? Heaven was aware of Earth and his citizens, surely they tought of something if this situation should occur.

“It is.” Keith softly answered as he sat the plate of fruits aside, leaving nothing but empty air between him and Lance.

“And you look downright gorgeous.” The ornithologist stated, scooting close to the angel. Lance knew he was getting too close to the flames, like a moth drawn into fire. It was an odd resemblance since Keith was the one with wings, not Lance. But it worked. Keith’s every gaze that lingered on a bit longer than necessary sent sparks around in Lance’s eyes. Keith colored every mundane thing interesting, renewed and familiar, welcoming in that exact order.

“Says _you._ ” Keith whispered as Lance came closer and closer, back into his personal space. Lance knew he was a passionate one, in lots of aspects of his life. Everyone commented on it, some ex-lovers shied away from it. But Keith? He only brought his own flames to the situation, helping everything to be set ablaze. And he certainly wasn’t standing back now either.

The angel took the human’s hands in his, placing one tan palm on his cheek and nuzzled into it as his other hand intertwined fingers with the other tan one.

“Lance.” He said, both a statement: _You better do what I think you’re going to do._ and a question: _Are you finally going to do what I think you’re doing?_

The human’s thumb caressed its paths on the angel’s cheekbone and his other hand shimmied away from the paler one’s hold to cup his face fully.

“Keith?” He whispered, both a question: _For how long are you going to stay here with me?_ and a statement: _Please do not take off to Heaven soon._

Their eyes locked. And Lance leaned in.

Just when his eyelids closed in anticipation of chapped lips, Lance felt Keith back away.

“Woah, this is really happening!” The angel breathed very much onto Lance’s face, thanks. The brunette blinked. _Uhh... What?_

“Well... Yeah?” He shrugged, puzzled. Didn’t Keith want this? Then why did he lean in too?

“Woah...” Keith sighed once more, giddy giggles escaping his lips. Oh, how long he had dreamt about this. And it was _perfect._ Lance’s face was sharper with the poor lightning but was also softer with the smooth colors. A tiny replica of the candle flame near them shone on his beautiful eyes, reflecting. His hands were so warm against Keith’s skin and he was close enough that the angel picked up the fading Lance smell somehow always on the human. His freckles were hidden under the darkness around the room but Keith could tell where every single one of them was located. Everything about the moment, _everything about Lance,_ was perfect. Except, he wasn’t kissing Keith.

Keith waited for a second before breathing in and taking the initiative himself.

“Anyways, we were kissing.” He said matter of factly, diving a bit faster than he should have into Lance’s space just to have Lance putting one hand flat against Keith’s chest to stop him.

A flash of rejected puppy-ness traveled across Keith’s face.

“That was _before_ you ruined the mood.” Lance explained, voice a tad bit frustrated.

“Ruined the mood?” Keith huffed, immediately annoyed at the accusation. “I’ll set it up again.”

He reached with his wings around Lance, pulling the human close with the texture of soft, soft feathers. Lance always made clear that he was amazed by Keith’s wings, _so why not use them?_

Lance giggled as he turned his head around slightly to look at the wings surrounding them. They truly were masterpieces- the way the feathers were angled was designed to omitt the voices that could probably emerge from the wings. They were light enough to not cause Keith much trouble to carry them on his back. And don’t even get Lance started on the aerodynamics. 

Keith’s arms wrapped them around the taller man’s waist as his wings held up most of Lance’s weight. The ornithologist’s hands found their respective spots on either side of the angel’s face.

“I think you owe me a kiss.” Keith whispered.

His bangs were keeping Lance from seeing his gorgeous eyes, especially in the current lightning of the room. So he gently pushed them up before whispering back:

“Make that two.” 

And they both leaned in, first only pressing a chaste kiss. In just a second, Lance tilted his head slightly for a better angle. Keith’s lips were chapped as he expected against his carefully balmed and taken care of ones. Of course they were, Keith had a habit of chewing on his lips. And a faint taste of apples joined the kiss when Keith deepened the actions on his behalf.

Above them, their lights woke up from their sleep as electricty came back. The fridge –very loudly- hummed and buzzed itself back to life, several beeps across the flat indicated that devices got turned on again. The artificial lights rudely knocked on their closed eyelids. Only then Lance realized how quiet it had been when the power was out and how well Keith filled that lack of noices just like how he filled Lance’s life into a much better one. 

The ornithologist groaned as he pulled back but the angel was quicker. 

Keith brought up and closed his wings above them both as if they were in a capsule, giant feathers blocking out most of the noises and a fair amount of the lights. And he reached for Lance’s lips again.

This kiss started sweeter but quickly held urgency as both of them couldn’t help but pour their feelings into it. Somewhat clumsy, somewhat desperate, their lips moved together and Keith had nothing to blame but Lance’s leading lips and tongue for the blush on his face. And Lance had nothing to blame but Keith’s raw emotions and the way he held him close for the rate his heart was beating in.

When they parted for air Lance placed his forehead softly on Keith’s:

“Keith?” They both still had their eyes closed. The angel hummed in acknowledgement and tilted his face up a bit, nuzzling his nose against Lance’s. “If we keep on kissing and the candles start a fire around the house _I’m gonna be so upset.”_

The wings abruptly returned to their places to dangle behind Keith and Lance shivered at the loss of warmth and the gaining of the cold air moving with the wings. He watched as the beige to brown canvases that were the feathers sway, two or three of them leaving their places and flowing down to the sofa. That was odd. Keith didn’t shed feathers. Lance never came across a single discarded feather over the time the angel’s been in the flat. Pushing past the small occurence, the brunette laughed:

“Thank you.” He got up from where he sat and blew the candles out one by one. Then, as Lance carried the candles back to the kitchen cabinet, his phone rang.

Keith dragged the previously forgotten plate of fruits back onto his lap, chewing on big bites while watching Lance pick up his phone on his way back.

“Hi, Pidge!” Lance sat down once again, facing Keith.

“Lance! You sound a lot better than I feared you would!” She answered, accompanied by tiny noises of her tapping away on her keyboard. The ornithologist hummed:

“Yeah, I slept for...” he stopped to recall. “...hours actually, after talking with Hunk.”

“Good, good. Do you need anything?” Pidge. Always the practical and direct one.

“Not really-“

“Have you eaten?” She questioned.

“Yes.”

“Are you hydrated enough?” She kept on.

“I think so-“

“Did you miss your best friends? Because we missed you. A lot.” She finished, voice soft. 

“Yes!” Lance breathed out. Adult life busied them a lot sometimes and they went on for a month or two without seeing each other in person. But it never meant they wouldn’t miss each other.

It had been some time, actually. The calendar said it was twenty third of november, he last seen them when Matt visited, on the seventh day of the month. 

“How about...” He trailed of, looking in Keith’s eyes. Lance pointed to the phone in his hand and then pointed down where he sat. _Pidge and Hunk. Here._

Keith furrowed his eyebrows, shrugging. _What?_

Lance rolled his eyes at the angel. “How about Hunk and you visit?” He asked Pidge whilst keeping his eyes on Keith.

Keith had listened Lance talk about Hunk and Pidge a lot in their time together and he already loved them. He loved them for loving Lance the way he deserved. He loved them for being great friends for Lance for years. 

The angel smiled and gave a thumbs up as Pidge spoke on the other side of the line:

“Oooh, a day in, you say? Sure, I’ll beg Hunk for peanut butter cookies. Is saturday good?”

Lance grinned at what is unfolding before his eyes and ears. He got to introduce some of the most important people in his life, one of them being an angel, to each other.

“Sounds perfect.”

Pidge chuckled over the phone at his enthusiasm.

“Now that’s more like it. Then...” Another wave of keyboard tapping. “I’ll see you on saturday?” She was probably working.

“Yes, yes. Thanks for calling.” 

“Anytime. We have only one goofball named Lance. Gotta take care of him.” Her chuckles were louder this time as Lance scoffed.

“I’m not a goofball, I’m like a cool ninja!” 

“You wish.” Pidge deadpanned, voice miles away from malice. “I have to go now, call me tomorrow. I need to gush about a girl I saw on the bus.”

Lance smiled, a small breath escaping his lips. “My favorite kind of talk. Okay, take care Pigeon.”

“Bye!” She cheerfully ended the call and Lance beamed to Keith.

“You’re going to _love_ them!”

 

Days tumbled back into their routine where Lance went to work with his birds and came home to an angel but it was splashed with a new palette of colors they made. They kissed each other goodnight, they let fingers wander in brown and black hair. Keith smiled more as Lance got to freely flirt with his... His what?

Boyfriend, lover, partner in life Lance wanted to call him but it wasn’t quite the case, was it? Keith was his guest, traveler, wanderer. Someone who didn’t belong next to Lance. Someone who was going to leave. 

Keith had a habit of speaking with his actions rather than his words. And he acted like he was never going to fucking leave. It left Lance excusing himself hastily to run and hide and wipe away burning tears in the bathroom. He never wanted to be next to someone as he did to Keith and the whole sensation clawed at his chest. He was already weeping the departure of the angel he had grown to love, little by little, hoping it won’t shake him too much when he actually left. So how could Keith act like everything were to be okay?

 

But he’d trade his happiness for Keith’s any day. He wanted to act like they were two normal lovers? So be it. Lance would swallow the questions back. _How are you so sure about this?_ He’d focus only on his lilac in the morning, indigo in the night eyes. _How much time do we have left?_

Plus, he wasn’t entirely innocent either. He wanted to introduce Keith to Pidge and Hunk, knowing they won’t tell a soul. He blabbered on and on about things he wanted to do with Keith. “I’m thinking of getting some fairy lights up here. You’ll help me string them, won’t you?” He spoke fondly of times to spend together. “The Last Jedi’s bluray will be out soon. We can have a movie night.” He always included him in everything. “I saw this recipe, wanna give it a go?” 

It wasn’t a surprise when saturday came quickly and knocked on their door in disguise of his best friends.

“HEYYY GUYS!” Lance croaked the door open, just a little.

“What are you doing?” Pidge piped up. The chestnut hair she cut herself framed her round face, daylight shone in her honey dripped eyes. She was wearing Matt’s old, long, mustard colored coat on her favorite green sweater. She had _a lot_ green sweaters. The necklace Hunk and Lance gifted her on her last birthday shone around her neck. “No way!” She had cried and sniffled. “This is too expensive, you guys... You dorks, I can’t accept this.”

“I _knew_ something was up! You brought a stray cat in and it ate Blue, didn’t it?” Hunk asked and accused in one sentence next to Pidge. His dark chocolate locks flew down to his forehead with layers. Rich brown skin ever so vibrant and royal even when he’s just standing in an apartment hallway. He was snugly dressed in his thermal something coat –he got cold easily- and underneath, he had the sweatshirt Lance and Pidge poorly embroidered a big, wayward sunflower on and gifted Hunk. Originally, Lance’s mother bought the sweatshirt for Lance. “Mom, get your eyes checked. Seriously.” And it quickly became an inside joke. “I just got promoted!” , “Let’s all go get our eyes checked to celebrate!” And a particularly boring afternoon Lance and Pidge shared led them to patch and sew their way on the gift.

“What? No! Blue’s fine.” Lance answered, then proceeded to fidget. “You can’t tell _anyone_ what you see here, okay?” 

Even it reminded Hunk and Pidge the day Lance came out as bisexual to them, they just nodded without mentioning it.

 

“Honestly I can’t understand what are you panicking aBOUT- WHO ARE THEY?” Pidge screamed, jumping and hiding behind Hunk who was openly staring with an equally open mouth.

“Uuuh-“ Lance and Keith exclaimed in union. Pidge and Hunk were standing in the entarance three steps away from the sofa bed, gaping at Keith who was awkwardly sitting in the middle of the furniture hidden under Star Wars sheets. Lance angled his body between his best friends and the angel, arms raising in an attempt to gesture them to calm down.

“Pidge, Hunk, meet Keith- he is an angel.” Lance said, trying his best to not laugh.

“An angel?” Pidge stepped forward with the voice of a skeptic who wanted to believe. 

“Does this-“ Hunk’s voice betrayed him as his eyes traveled between Keith and Lance. “Does this mean Lance is going to die?” The chef’s voice cracked.

“DOES IT, KEITH?” Lance screamed as he whipped his head back so fast to look at Keith.

“NO!” The angel yelled. “YOU KN- You know why I’m here, Lance.” 

“Oh, right.” Lance put a hand on his heart as he moved to go and sit on the sofa bed. “He fell from Heaven.” He snickered as the angel scoffed.

Pidge and Hunk shared a startled look before hesitantly coming closer. “Well,” Hunk started. “My grandma used to talk about her _guardian angel_ all the time-“ Keith nodded eagerly. Hunk seemed to pick up the clues. “-but the townsfolk told her she was mad as a hatter.” Hunk tilted his head to a side, eyeing the giantic wings.

Keith frowned at that. “That’s not true! Guardian angels exist!” and he proceeded his adorable upset by crossing his arms over his chest, causing Lance to secretly melt.

“Seems like it.” Pidge said as she plopped herself on the sofa bed, respectively away from Keith. “There is no way those wings are human made.” She shrugged.

Hunk joined his friends too, still looking on the edge. “How did you _fall_ from Heaven? Like, how does that work? Where is Heaven located anyways?”

“Yeah, Keith, answer those!” Lance laughed while scooting and putting his head on Keith’s lap. Paler, shorter fingers threaded into soft, brown locks. Pidge raised her thick eyebrows.  
“I didn’t fall from Heaven.” The angel affectionately rolled his eyes. “I got exiled- uh, long story.” He prompted, suddenly aware of the two pairs of curious and calculating eyes. Their gazes made him feel small.

“Longer than you and Lance’s story?” Hunk snickered, looking at them with a glint in his eyes.

 

Four hours and a batch of peanut butter cookies later Keith, Pidge and Hunk were bundled alltogether on the sofa, laughing.

“Pidge, Pidge...” Hunk took a shaky breath in. “Tell him the time Lance shouted in the library about the three squads he made.” He fell into a fit of laughter as Pidge snorted loudly, wiping a single tear from under her glasses.

“He- What?” Keith breathed a giggle since he hadn’t quite finish his previous laughter yet.

“So, Hunk and I were sitting there, calculus notes all over the desk-“

“Nooo! Don’t tell _that one!_ ” Lance’s voice reached them from the bathroom he went to two minutes ago.

“Sorry Lance!” Hunk called out, not sorry at all. “Go on.”

“And-“ Pidge starts and stops in seconds, lively laughter spilling from her lips. “And Lance barges in, screaming ‘My ass is like a sculpture right now!’ to everyone in the library.”

“No way!” Keith uttered out before his own laughter rocked his body as he clutches his stomach. Hunk nodded slowly. “He did- he really did-“ He sighed before laughing alongside Keith and Pidge.

“I hate you all.” Lance says flatly in a minute when he finally rejoins them.

 

They bid Pidge and Hunk goodbyes only when the clock nears the midnight. Keith snickered at Lance’s misfortunes and his incredible jokes that somehow stayed with his friends over the years until they fell asleep.

 

“Hey Keith?” Lance asked softly as he shuffled his way to the kitchen, holding a circular, brown papered package in his hand. “You have mail.” It had a single word, Keith, on it, written in cursive, neat hand writing with gold ink. The ornithologist felt pretty off when he saw the mail next to his bills that had arrived.

The angel turned away from the pot he was stirring. He had said hello to december this morning with Lance, now was the time to greet Lance himself. He raised to his tip toes and planted a small kiss on the corner of the human’s mouth before asking:

“For _me?_ ”

“Yeah. Weird.” Lance handed the surprisingly light mail to Keith, eyes catching the fallen feathers on the ground. _There are more feathers this time._ Nevertheless, his hands found their way on the small of Keith’s back.

The angel ripped the packaging almost as quick as his heartbeats. “Wait a second- It’s not weird at all!” He giggled. A sound of surprise more than it is a sound of joy. “They sent my halo back!” Pale fingers pulled a simple gold circle out of the brown papers covering it. It was a traditional one, one that humans got right about angels.

Keith raised the halo above his head and put it there, on air. Lance gasped as the circle actually stood there, glinting softly as if it’s happy to be back to its owner.

“How do I look?” Keith beamed. His eyes and smile were somehow more angelic than the halo hovering over his head. 

“Perfect.” Lance breathed while letting his eyes roam freely. _How? How, how did I get to be this lucky?_

Keith smiled one of his “let me melt and freeze and melt your heart, Lance” smiles. “Buuut-“ He spoke, taking the halo back from above his head, holding it with one hand. “That’s not all.” He spared Lance a quick glance before breaking away from his loose hold. He walked over and jumped on the sofa bed, intently watching the halo in his hand. “This is also a communication device.” He murmured without looking up.

Lance followed Keith hesitantly, the pot of soup long forgotten on the running stove. He had forgot about all that Heaven stuff, if only for days. But if they sent Keith’s halo back, they could send the words demanding him back in Heaven at any given point. He felt something sinking before churning away in his stomach. _Keith is happy. Don’t mess it up for him._ Next thing he knew, his heart was pounding in his ears.

Keith either didn’t notice Lance or didn’t react on purpose when the brunette’s weight shifted on the sofa bed next to him but not as close as they used to sit.

A vision flickered and came to life in the circular area the halo provided. 

A man with rather sharp edges in contrast to his doe eyes appeared. He had a scar bridging on his nose that was bold enough to stretch to his cheeks as well. He had black, strong looking wings behind him and a dark grey version of Keith’s dress on. Even when they couldn’t see the whole of his wings since only his head and torso was in the shot, Lance had a feeling that his wings were taller than Keith’s. Unbeknownst to the ornithologist, he was right. The angel in the vision had a tall body accompanying his tall, black wings that were just like a majestic bald eagle’s.

The white floof perched on the front of his head swayed a little as he leaned into his own halo in his hand and whistled. The melody of a two low and one high, long note that was Keith’s name in Heaven rang in the flat. The angel next to Lance nodded, a wet laugh escaping his lips.

“Yeah, it’s me.” He softly said.

“I was dead worried for you!” the angel on the other side of the halo answered. Keith scrunched his nose:

“Don’t say it like that!”

“Okay, okay,” The other angel chuckled, the stress lines on his face fading a bit. “I was very alive and worried about you.”

Lance shuffled where he sat. He couldn’t help but feel like he was interrupting something just when Keith spoke:

“Shiro, this is Lance.” He scooted next to Lance, angling the halo so that Shiro was directly looking at Lance. “Lance,” Keith said, lifting his eyes and searching the human’s face. “This is my brother.” 

“Hi,” Lance managed. This was the angel that protected his father. This was the angel that failed. 

“Lance knows.” Keith interrupted before Shiro could even say anything and a look of nostalgia passed the angel’s gaze.

“He does?” He asked, eyes on Lance. 

Lance smiled then, something far yet familiar awakening in his mind.

“Yeah.” Keith whispered. A small answer for a big serendipity.

 

This was the warmth eight years old Lance had felt on his hair before he went to bed like someone caressed it. This was the unknown force that never let Lance kick off the duvets in his sleep and get cold. This was the presence Lance felt for the whole week his father died. This was the angel that lingered on and protected Lance.

“Hello, Lance. You’ve grown so much.”

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> once again, thank you so much for reading!
> 
> *reporter voice* i'm livennadin on twitter and we've reached the half way on this story!


	6. Another Sleepless Night

“It’s cold.” Keith muttered, scooting closer to Lance.

The ornithologist laughed then, causing the angel to both hear and feel the beautiful sound as he had one hand on the human’s chest.

“You’re just stating that to cuddle closer to me-it’s not like you’re cold or anything.” Lance said, voice picking up on a chuckle on various parts of his sentence.

Keith grinned as he shuffled his body even closer. He let his arm circle Lance’s lithe torso and let his head drop on his shoulder. The angel was laying on his side as the human laid on his back on their sofa bed.

“So what? You _like_ cuddling.” The shorter male stuck his tongue out.

Lance put the weekly statuses of the birds he and his collagues collected aside. He was going over them once again after dinner on that friday night, twelveth of december.

“Of course I like cuddling, have you even met me?” The taller male snickered as one tan hand reached back and delved long fingers gently in between the beige feathers. Keith closed his eyes and hummed, content.

Lance reached with his other hand and brushed Keith’s bangs away from his eyes. This all was foreign to him in the beginning. He had went so long without receiving or giving physical interactions, so he found his skin memorizing where Lance had touched. He found himself yearning for the warmth. And slowly, like sinking in a warm, bubbly bath Keith became more and more open to these touches.

“Keith?” Lance spoke softly after a moment or two of silence.

 

Lance called his name when he was going to say something important, the angel had discovered. Other times, it was all nicknames. He muttered “Miss me, Mullet?” before kissing him when he came back home, he said “Go on, baby, I’m listening.” when Keith trailed off talking about a touchy subject. “My other language? You mean Spanish?” He had said one time when Keith asked about it. “Well, I’d call you _cariño_ if we were speaking Spanish.”

“Hm?” Keith opened his eyes, looking at the human gazing distantly at him. The angel loved having the ornithologist’s attention but not as much Lance enjoyed attention, he found out. The human lived for the spotlight. Whether it was having his colleagues’ eyes on him or having the strangers on the street looking and smiling at him or his friend’s warm gaze, he loved it. 

“I love having your eyes on me the most.” He had whispered the night they strung the newly bought fairy lights. They had turned the other lights off and Lance had been continuously glowing golden under the temporary yellow flickers from the fairy lights. And Keith had been openly gaping at him.

 

“Are you- You’re sick of being stuck in this house, aren’t you?” He asked, blinking and gulping. He was still watching Keith.

“Well,” Keith composed his posture as he sat up straight. “I’m not sick of anything but I wish I could go out too.” He reached for the beautiful brown hands Lance retracted and held one. “If it’s the price I’ll pay to be with you...” the angel shrugged. _...then i’ll gladly pay it._ he meant and they both knew it.

But darker smokes turned and churned around in Lance’s mind.

“You can’t do this for long though.” The ornithologist whispered, his eyes glazed with something Keith saw often in the blue, blue eyes. Fear.

But he shut his mouth. He never found it in himself to speak up and ease the human’s worries for he himself was drowning in them. Actually, Lance was the one drowning. Keith was simply burning.

He had made his decisions and he knew he was in love. Keith was always one to be stubborn. If he felt something, then he felt it and he stood by it. But he had no control over the human’s fragile heart. He had no idea how the band-aided-over-the-cracks-heart he was dealing with would react.

And Keith knew. If Lance was to misstep one single time, if Lance was to deny, he’d run away. He’d _fly_ away, his wings were still working. Because Keith was one to walk away, he was the angel that always cut his ties loose, he was the angel that always burned down bridges.

Lance was probably the only one that could help Keith learn how to stay. But he was too caught up in his own concerns.

“No one can know that,” Keith answered as he got up from the sofa. He busied himself with taking Blue in his hands and tucking her to sleep in her cage.

Lance sighed, getting up too. “Yeah, I guess...” He muttered weakly as he made his way to the bathroom.

Keith wanted to rush after him, hold him, tell him that... But he couldn’t. Not now. He worked hard and long to move past his aggressive manners, his desperation to stop the ones he loved from leaving. When he was younger, he reasoned that if he left first, then he’d avoid being left. Shiro and his family, _Keith’s adoptive family,_ coaxed him out of his shell after passing the challenges Keith involuntarily threw at them. He moved past those pain dripped times. He matured. 

But now, he feared that Lance would pick and pull one needle from the carefully stocked pile that was holding Keith up, and Keith would collapse alongside with it.

 

Nevertheless, he walked after Lance. Slowly, in contrast to his speeding heart, but still he went after him.

Lance was putting his toothbrush back into the cup in front of the mirror when Keith stepped in. 

“What’s that? Can’t stay away from me for ten minutes?” The human joked as he reached to the tube of face mask. The angel smirked and wrapped his arms around him, hugging Lance from behind:

“Nope, I can’t.” He muttered boldly into his shirt, causing the ornithologist to blush.

“Pfft yeah sure,” Lance rolled his eyes as the heat on his cheeks traveled up and up. “Wait, babe, don’t move and look in the mirror.”

Keith peeked up from behing Lance’s shoulder at that.

Since the angel’s body was shorter, his reflection was also hidden behind the human save for the wings. The reflection made Lance look like he was the bearer of the wings.

The beiges and browns of the wings looked vibrant and lively with Lance’s glowing dark skin. The colors matched. The darker spots on the wings stood out more now, but it was different with Keith, his pale complexion favored the lighter parts of the wings.

“I look like an angel!” Lance exclaimed, a giddy laugh escaping his lips. They locked eyes through the mirror. Ocean blue eyes were shining throughoutly as purple ones widened. 

“Yeah,” Keith breathed, a choir of his acquaintances back in heaven singing in his mind. “You do look like an angel.” He took the halo hovering above his head and raising to the tip of his toes, he held it above Lance’s.

The ornithologist laughed again as the angel behind him peeked over his shoulder, grinning.

“Now the look’s complete.” Lance said. “What do you think, would I pass as an angel?” 

“Oh, definetly.” Keith snickered. “Maybe you _are_ an angel. Maybe you don’t actually need me to hold the halo.”

“Come on,” The human said, catching the angel’s eyes before looking up at the halo from the mirror. “Drop it.”

Keith shook his head slightly as giggles made their way out of his less chapped lips. Lance had bought him a lip balm and insisted him to use it: “You gotta take care of your heavenly body, man!” 

The request was so Lance, giddy and hopeful yet knowing. It was a perfect sum of his general approach to life. He knew things weren’t that good, still he dared to see the better of things and people, he dared to make situations lighter, even at the expanse of getting called a goofball.

Still giggling, Keith stopped holding up the halo, knowing too well that it would fall on top of Lance’s head. But the halo stood there for an unnaturally long second, hovering, causing Keith’s heart to pick up speed again. _Oh stars above... This man will be the end of me._

But Lance didn’t seem to notice that for he laughed once again at the halo plopping down on his head. The gold shimmered from between the chocolate brown locks Keith got the pleasure to play with before sleeping.

“Good to know that I’m %100 human.” He said, shrugging a bit as he handed the halo back to the angel from over his shoulder.

 

Lance wondered from time to time, he wondered what would it be like if he was an angel like Keith. Maybe they would meet in guardian angel training. Keith had said he was the top of his classes but maybe he and Lance would be neck and neck, competing. But these were not the usual thoughts clouding his mind.

He often wondered why Keith loved him. Surely he wasn’t as great as the angel made him out to be. Lance had his fair amounts of his shortcomings, clearly. He found himself crushed under the repeating thoughts of not being enough and the vicious chants of “They don’t actually love you.”s even before Keith crashed down to his life. 

Now the angel had the comfiest, biggest spot in Lance’s heart and he had put his throne there, never budging.

But Lance was a simple man, just another human, a coincidence Keith stumbled across. He was stupid to think that Keith would be interested in him even if Lance had been an angel. _He wouldn’t spare a second glance, among all the angels up in Heaven... You wouldn’t stand out there too..._

 

The angel’s pale, delicate fingers snapped the human out of his thoughts. He placed both his hands on soft, tan cheeks, tugging the corners of the ornithologist’s frown up delicately into a smile.

“Stop, Lance.” Keith said, voice laced with something warm, something heavy. “Stop thinking... whatever it is.”

Lance chuckled hesitantly at that one. “I’ll try.” He answered, bringing one pale hand with his own to kiss the angel’s knuckles.

“Now, if you’ll excuse me, I have a face mask, a tonic and a moisturizer to apply.” The ornithologist grinned, letting Keith’s hand go.

The angel groaned playfully on his way out.

 

Days started tumbling down towards the half of the month.

Lance freaked out more and more with every feather he found on the ground, fallen, like Keith.

It reached an unbearable point at 16th of december.

Lance was squinting at the laptop on his lap when Keith got up, followed by... followed by only half of his wings as he walked to the kitchen. It was past midnight, but neither of them were sleepy. 

The once majestic, strong and tall wings looked like they were cut and pulled away at the seams. They weren’t even. They had lost volume. If Lance didn’t know how sparkly Keith’s eyes were or how normal his appetite had been, he’d say the angel was sick.

But seeing him like that... The ornithologist felt the sob wrenching it’s way out just before hearing it.

Keith whipped around hastily at the sorrowful sound and rushed to Lance’s side with worry etched on his spine:

“Lance?”

He wiped away the few tears stubbornly, one hand clasped around the angel’s upper arm:

“What is going on with you?” His voice turned into a growl by the end of his question. The angel had been avoiding every single thing Lance asked about his wings.

A flame sparked and came alive in Keith’s expressive eyes.

“Me? What is going on with _you_?” He answered and asked, voice raising without intention.

Without a care, Lance plopped the laptop on his lap down to the sofa he was sitting on and rose to his feet. The scene was all too familiar. But none of them were composed this time.

Keith snatched his arm away forcefully.

“You’re getting torn apart! Do you have any idea about that?” Lance hissed, tears burning and angry from now on.

Keith slammed his jaw shut, clenching it. The human’s eyes traced the movement and the shifting in the angel’s muscles over the sides of his jaw.

“Why are you staying silent?” The human piped up, a crack he didn’t invited making a place on his voice.

 

Lance was insecure. He heard that a lot alongside with useless things like: “You need to be confident more!” 

Yeah no kidding.

And Keith loved him with a fire and ferocity no one ever has. It made no sense. _I don’t deserve it. I don’t deserve it. But I want it. Why are you giving this to me?_

 

“You don’t get to say that, after not saying _a word_ about what’s quiznacking bothering you!” The angel spat, voice sharp like a shattered glass, voice a glass vulnerable enough to shatter.

 

Keith was defensive. He got accused of that a lot. He grew defensive against those who stated so too.

Why was Lance making it so hard? The human was the only one to look beyond how Keith’s past and sharp edges tried to define him. Other than Shiro, that is. Lance was the only lover who didn’t deem him “too much to handle”

_Give me a reason to stay. Give me a sign that you won’t leave me. I’m giving it all, why do you insist on not seeing that?_

 

“I’m sleeping in my room tonight.” Lance whispered, broken as he brushed past Keith.

Keith sighed heavily as he stood there and hugged himself, a habit from his childhood.

 

A couple of hours passed where the human shed tears in his room as the angel sniffled into a pillow in the living room. Sleep didn’t come to both of them.

 

Keith heard soft, hesitant footsteps while staring at the empty space –Lance’s spot- in the darkness.

“You couldn’t sleep too?” He croaked as he sat up in the sofa bed, voice raspy from crying.

Lance picked up speed at that and crawled on the furniture. He reached for the fairy lights on the wall behind the couch before sitting cross legged across Keith.

The lights illuminated tired, teary, now looking like depths of ocean eyes. The lights revealed hurt, hopeful, now glinting golden and purple like Heaven evenings eyes.

“I love you.” Lance whispered, never taking his eyes from Keith’s.

Keith leaned forward and buried his face in the crook of the human’s neck. His arms found their ways around the slim body. Tan arms rested on the small of the stronger body, below the wings.

“I’m in love with you.” Keith answered, voice equally a whisper.

Lance chuckled ever so softly, still a bit wet from the tears, resting his cheek on the angel’s fluffy black hair. “Stop one upping me.”

Keith snorted before leaving a small kiss on the human’s defined collar bone. “This is not a competition.” He smiled as he pulled back to be able to look at the gorgeous face of his lover.

“No, I suppose not.” Lance smirked before leaning in and planting a soft, fleeting kiss on the angel’s lips. He was about to lean in again for a much needed solidified kiss but he saw something exciting from the corner of his eye.

“It’s snowing!” The human said as the angel in his arms were gazing at his lips expectantly.

“It’s what?” Keith’s thick yet, somehow despite not having touched a tweezer, shaped eyebrows furrowed. He bent his body to look at the windows behind him.

Generous and glinting bits of snow were strolling lazily down from the sky. 

“What are those?” The angel detached himself from the human to rush to the window.

Lance got up with a grunt too, right on his tail. “Snow. It’s snowing. Doesn’t it snow in Heaven?”

Keith shook his head no. His wide eyes were alight with wonder and excitement. The pavements and the roads seperating them and the rooftops watching all from up above were covered white in sparkling snow. _So it snowed when we were trying to sleep, then stopped and started again._

“It rains liquid gold in Heaven, like I told you before, but I’ve never seen anything quite like this.” The shorter male exhaled, his breath misting a patch on the window. Keith then plopped his forehead on the window, watching snowfall.

An affectionate laugh bubbled out of Lance, reaching up to his eyes as well.

“So, Angel,” He started. Keith turned his head a bit in favor of looking at the angel from over his shoulder. “What do you think, do you have enough magic to spell us invisible again?”

Keith’s eyes sparkled even more than before, a grin pulling up the lips Lance adored. “Yeah... Yeah! I can. Let’s go out!” He giggled and clasped Lance’s hand, tugging him towards the door.

“Woah, woah, wait!” The human laughed, tugging back a bit. “Let me go change into something appropriate. Don’t want my ass to freeze off.” 

The angel rolled his eyes playfully as a reply: 

“Oh, right, your fragile human body could get cold easily.”

Lance smirked.

“You weren’t talking about my _fragile human body_ like that couple of days ago. Actually, you looked like you enjoyed staring at it.” He went as far as winking too.

A blush crept up Keith’s face as quick as a scoff left his lips.

“Go change.” _That smug, beautiful, soft, warm, human... That- that... perfect little- Okay nevermind._

 

It was quite the sight once they got out.

Both for Lance and Keith.

Keith loved watching the snowflakes fall. Those white, fragile things flowed silently and gracefully. They were both cozy in the lazy way they made their paths and they were bold in the way they invited themselves on everything, taking up every surface they can. It amazed the angel how these little, shy flakes piled and piled until they swallowed the whole street. The crunch the snow made under their steps was a whole reason Keith had that giddy smile on his lips.

And Lance felt himself slipping and falling but not because of the slippery ground underneath him, rather because of the _happiness_ the angel was radiating. He felt honored as Keith let himself be next to Lance. The angel was so excited and amazed, tilting his head up and watching the snow fall, bending down and touching the smooth, white snow underneath, walking around, jumping on and off pavements, skipping his way back to the ornithologist. He never knew his heart could feel this big and full yet bitter at the same time as more and more feathers left the angel.

They had their first argument- _was that an argument or were we both just stressed?_ and they hadn’t properly made up yet. But Lance wanted Keith to enjoy the snow as much as he could. He didn’t want to bother him just yet. But he found himself picking up feathers after the angel, not risking someone finding them out after they go back in and the spell fades.

He stuffed the wings in his pocket when Keith slipped and fell on his butt a few steps away from him.

“Oh my god,” He started laughing at the angel’s downright _betrayed_ expression. 

“You didn’t tell me they were slippery!” Keith accused, still on the ground. Lance doubled up laughing as he tried to suck in breaths. “Oh god- I didn’t-“ He broke off laughing again. “I didn’t think you’d fall!” 

The human crouched in front of him, small waves of laughter still making their ways out of him. Keith frowned.

“Seriously, Mullet, how many more times are you going to fall? One time from Heaven-“

“Everyday for you,” The angel added, voice nostalgic. He had his halo shrink into a bracelet around his wrist. He was wearing another shirt Lance cut and modified the back of for his wings. The comfortable sweatpants he wore were clearly wet after sitting in the snow.

“And this one time at snow.” Lance finished. His voice trailed off and the bright smile on his face flickered off, mouth a firm line now. But he gathered himself quickly, smiling a rehearsed smile.

“We humans have a thing called ‘Making snow angels.’ Wanna see it?” He asked.

Keith appreciated the effort but he wasn’t much of a patient type. He wanted to find out whatever was troubling his love and wanted to solve it, banish it, whatever he could do. He wanted the tension gone.

“Tell me what’s bothering you first?” He spoke. He didn’t want Lance to run away again. He never wanted Lance away.

“On one condition.” Lance busied his gaze with the task of looking around before returning the angel’s look. “You tell me what’s up with your wings. Are you hurting?”

Keith closed his eyes slowly and chuckled a bit. But the sound was stoic.

“Hurting?” He shufled a bit where he sat. “Maybe I will be. It depends on your actions.” Lance felt his heart beating faster. _What is he on to?_

“I’m giving up my wings, Lance.”

Reasoning that there is no way of avoiding the question if he wanted to be with Lance, Keith breathed out the answer the human was searching for for a while.

“And my halo. And my magic.” Keith nodded shortly with each sentence yet he couldn’t find the strenght to look at Lance’s face.

“Don’t.” He barely heard the human whisper.

The angel closed his eyes once again, defeated. _He doesn’t want you. He was eventually going to leave. He always thought you’d return to Heaven, that’s why he started this. He knew he was going to get rid of you quickly._ As if he hadn’t cried already, tears and a throbbing pain threatened his head and eyes.

But the next words he heard made him shot open the previously mentioned eyes.

“I don’t deserve it.” Lance breathed out.

“What are you talking about?” Keith asked. Was that really what Lance found worthy of himself? 

The human looked at him with eyes pools of emotion.

“Keith, I love you. So much. And I was so sad that you were going to leave but- But uh, _why_ do you love me? Like, you _are_ going to get bored of me- and my stupid stuff... You are going to get tired of having to reassure me and I- I’ll burden us both-“ He vomited out, breathless, shivering either from the cold or from what Keith said. The angel suspected it was because of the latter.

“Wait, wait.” Keith held up one hand as Lance’s ankles grew tired and he stopped crouching and ploppled down on the snow too, not caring that his clothes were going to get wet.

“You do not have the right to decide for me.” The angel started. “My heart is mine to give whoever I want. I find you worthy enough- _Quiznack,_ you deserve all the realms, Lance... And you do not get to doubt my sincere feelings because of your insecurities.” 

Lance’s shoulders sank down as he spoke:

“You know only three people and I am the one you knew the longest! How objective is this decision?”

Keith scoffed, a true “I can’t believe you just said that” scoff.

“I know plenty of angels, didn’t fall like this for any of them.” He shrugged. Sure, he had ex boyfriends, but he never opened up this much to any of them. And the ones he ended up showing some parts of him left rather quickly. No one was like Lance. “Plus, you don’t think I love you just because you gave me a place to stay, do you? I could just thank you and be your friend, then leave to Heaven.” 

Purple eyes waited as blue ones looked down, contemplating and back up, dedicated.

“That... makes so much sense.” He admitted quietly.

Keith waited for a second, chewing down his lip. He had found out love was about connecting, he had found out that finally, he had to build new bridges instead of the ones he burnt. He found out that his pride had been the fuel he drenched the bridges in and his secrecy had been the match he threw to start the fire.

And he knew where his heart yearned to be: Next to the blue eyed, warm skinned, kind souled human.

He thought of how much he grew. He thought of how he blossomed from a cement crack, finding a way. He thought of how warm this love surrounded him, assuring him that mistakes or not, Keith was something to stick with, he was something to return to.

“I trusted you back at the facility, I took a faithful -and maybe reckless- step with the wing stuff. Trust me, Lance. Meet me halfway.” Keith whispered, trying his best in pushing aside his fears of Lance leaving him.

 

“I’ll always remember your words, Keith and I’m sure I want to keep waking up to you. But-“ The ornithologist’s eyes shied away as his voice dropped to a whisper as well. “Are you sure about what are you doing?” A blush decorated his cheeks.

Keith smiled easily. He got up and reached with one hand to help Lance up too. Surprised as to why did the angel’s answer required them standing up, the human followed his lead.

Keith could answer while sitting down too, sure, but he wanted to be dramatic. Plus, snow wasn’t the best thing to sit on, he found out.

He stepped in close until their chests touched. “Because, Lance, some things happen for a reason.” 

He brought up his free hand and touched approximately where Lance’s heart was. It was difficult with the big coat the human had on.

“Some things are bound together.”

He took his hand back and touched where his own heart was beating.

“Because some coincidences are calculated.”

He took the human’s warm face in his hands, gazing up at the blue, blue eyes.

“Some stars are tied in the same constellation for a reason.” 

Lance let out a breath between a gasp and a sigh as he brought his own hands up to caress Keith’s cheeks.

“I don’t know about you,” The angel murmured, eyes fixed on his lover’s. “But I don’t think I just fell. I _fell_ into an orbit around you. Delibaretly.”

 

Lance knew he had to address and fix his lack of compassion for himself eventually. He thought of how he could trust Keith. He could trust his mom, his siblings, Pidge, Hunk... They loved Lance. If they loved Lance, he could love himself too. He knew, logically, that he could love himself without anybody else loving him. He knew he _should_ love himself regardless of outside opinions. But it was nice having support. 

Lance thought maybe he didn’t need anything extraordinary to be loved. 

And he knew the extend of countless self sabotages he had performed up until this point. He had the right to be happy. He had the opportunity to be happy with Keith.

He wanted to be happy with Keith.

“Then let’s get a double bed- we both are going to fuck up our spines if we keep sleeping on that cheap sofa.” Keith interrupted by laughing softly. “We’ll get a double bed, we’ll buy a photo album to fill together. We’ll frame our pictures up on the wall. Mom will knit you a scarf too. And you’ll stay.” Lance delivered, each sentence, each word, each syllable laced with warm, sincere promises and proposals.

The angel giggled happily.

“On one condition.” Keith said, quoting Lance’s earlier statement. “You’ll show me how to make snow angels first.”

 

 

Keith was pretty disappointed with snow angels.

“You just flalied your arms around on snow.”

“Yeah, sweetheart, that’s the thing.” Lance answered, still laying on his back in snow. He had lended his scarf to Keith when the angel felt cold for the first time in his entire life.

“I didn’t like snow angels.” Keith said slowly, trying to see how on Heaven and by the stars above did _that_ resembled an angel.

“Let’s make a snowman then!” Lance said as he got up. Keith had his suspicions. 

“Are you going to roll in snow _but face down_ this time?” He asked skeptically.

The human laughed as he adjusted the scarf on the angel to shield him from the cold better. “No. I’m gonna roll snow until they become a rough sphere? Then I’m going to make two more and stack them on top of each other.” 

The angel’s face only twisted in confusion at that explanation.

“How is that going to look like a human? You –thankfully, I may add- don’t look like three spheres stacked up on each other!” 

“It doesn’t have to look precisely like a human!” Lance threw his hands up playfully. “Just-“ He chuckled. “Just follow my lead it’s fun.”

 

Keith was somewhat satisfied with snowmans.

An hour of snow biting into their hands as they played around passed until they finished their snowman. It took Keith a bit while to not crash snow piles they made with unnecessary force. Since it never stopped snowing when they were out, they got distracted by the discovery that snowflakes took longer to melt on Keith for he had low body temperature.

“I think it’s done. I mean, we don’t have corral or a carrot to make it complete but...” Lance shrugged. He had tried to draw the face and add some buttons on the torso by poking his finger in snow. 

Next to him, Keith tilted his head to the side as he tried to make sense of it. “I don’t see how would they help anyways.” He offered.

Lance smiled as he shook his head affectionately. His angel boyfriend didn’t really get snow activities but something made Lance think that Keith would love skiing. 

“But I had fun!” The angel exclaimed, turning his body slightly to look at the human standing close.

“Yeah?” Lance prompted, looking back at Keith as well. “I’m glad, then.” His black hair shone with either the wet spots melted snowflakes left or the freshly fallen white crytals. A snowflake flowed down without a hurry and got stuck on his eyelashes. Keith flinched slightly before blinking it away with a soft smile on his face. _Oh God, please let him stay with me forever._

“But,” The angel spoke, sparing the makeshift snowman a last glance. “The snowman doesn’t look really straight.”

Lance also sent the snowman one last look. It was leaning dangerously to its side. The human shrugged as he flung one arm around the angel’s shoulders. “It’s okay, we’re not straight either.”

 

The night they were out was the night that tied a monday to a tuesday. Keith got a specifically uplifting halo call on thursday, 19th of december.

Now, he would call his brother every day but being the captain of the guardian angels and an overachiever, Shiro was quite busy. He tried his best to return Keith’s halo calls but usually he only had the time to check his brother- ask how he’s doing and wonder why he was hiding his wings from view though he had a great idea why. 

Thursday though, he had the time to give some great news.

Keith whistled Shiro’s name in Heaven as his vision appeared between the circular area his halo provided. A rather long melody with an ease to roll out of the tongue, a low, a high, two short low notes following each other rang in the flat. The angel with black, shining wings bowed his head as a reply.

“How are you, Keith?” Shiro asked in that brotherly tone of his.

“Good. Pretty good.” Keith smiled, fidgeting excitedly. “Couple of days ago, we went out to play with snow Takashi!”

The guardian angel hummed:

“Yes, I’ve been informed that the last snow of the year has fallen.”

Shiro appeared to be at the townsquare, Keith saw bits and pieces of various wings passing around and white, glistening marble decorating the scene. Something he grew acquaintanced with gnawed at his chest. He missed Heaven.

“How are you?” He asked instead.

“I’m fine. I have a surprise for you Keef!” Shiro full on smiled then, a rare one that reached his eyes. 

Keith rolled his eyes at the nickname, apparently that was how he pronounced his own name when the angels of Shirogane line adopted him. Shiro refused to let him live it down.

“I’m listening.”

“I am-“ The older angel started and stopped, getting momentarily distracted by a stranger angel asking him the time. His eyes returned back to watching his brother’s face. “Sorry- Someone asked the time.” He cleared his throat. “I am coming to Earth tomorrow! I have this one small thing to do, after that I thought I can come visit you and Lance.”

Keith first stared then beamed at him.

“Are you serious?”

“Why wouldn’t I be?”

“Quzinack- that’s amazing, Shiro! Okay, okay, I’ll tell Lance so that he won’t stay for an extra shift.” Keith smiled. He got to see his brother? He got to introduce him to Lance? He wanted it nearly as much as he craved golden apples.

Shiro chuckled on the other side of the halo:

“Language- And I know! It’s been quiznacking long! I gotta go now, Keith, but I’ll see you tomorrow!” He gave a little salute with the hand he wasn’t holding the halo with.

Keith waved back a little. “See you! Bring me apples if you can!”

 

He rushed to the bathroom where Lance was showering the moment they ended tha halo call.

“Lance! Stop screaming, it’s me. Shiro’s visiting tomorrow!”

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> my first, rough drafts were planned as a ten chapter long story but as we proceeded the journey i realized it would work better with a finale on the eighth chapter!
> 
> so, yay! quality over quantity!
> 
> *cariño is a spanish noun meaning darling, sweetheart (i trusted google on this one but please let me know if i'm mistaken)


	7. This Is How We End

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> thank you for sticking until the end! i can only hope you enjoyed reading as much as i enjoyed writing!

The kitchen counter was scrubbed. The furnitures were pulled and pushed back into their neat places. A familiar odour he didn’t even know they owned was sprayed on air. Dust was banished from every surface it had settled on. The human was cleaning the living room windows when Keith walked in. 

“What are you even doing?”

Lance held the towel wrapped around his damp hair to prevent it from falling as he moved in the tiny flat.

“Your brother is coming. Isn’t that enough reason?” 

Keith walked towards the ornithologist with a grimace on his face. He had a feeling that Lance tidied the entire place in a span of thirty minutes.

“He’s my brother, not a health inspector.” 

“That means he’s _even harder_ to impress!” 

The angel held the extended arm still trying to scrub at the window:

“You don’t know Shiro, when he was in training he lived in a pile of crumbled Quick Gold packages.” Keith snickered at the memories as Lance’s eyebrows arched up.

“I’m not sure if I want to learn what a Quick Gold is... You angels are _obsessed_ with gold.” The ornithologist observed out loud as he took a step back from the windows, upper lip trapped by teeth in worry.

“My point is,” The angel took the cleaning tissue from the taller male’s hand and plopped it down somewhere. “Shiro won’t care much about the house, he’ll just want to see me and get to know you.” He shrugged, the remaining feathers attached his back bouncing slightly with the movement. Lance nodded softly, discarding the towel perched upon his head. “Aaand,” The angel smiled. “You were going to introduce Earth music to me.”

The human forgot about that at the news of the older angel visiting.

“Oh, right! Hold on, let me get the laptop.”

 

When they perched on the sofa bed, laptop on Lance’s lap and Keith cuddled to his side, Lance put his old playlist to shuffle.

A Rammstein song started, the one Lance used to blast directly to his eardrums on the bus when he was in high school. Engel.

Keith seemed to like the whistles the song started with, and his content expression stayed on his face until drums and the electric guitars got involved in.

“What are those instruments?” He asked with an automatic grimace on his face.

Lance laughed a bit, a good natured sound ringing between them.

“I think the one you didn’t like is the electric guitar.” He answered and shifted a bit to look at the angel’s face. “Please don’t tell me the strongest instrument you have in Heaven is a harp.” He’d never let Keith live it down if that was the case.

“No!” The angel huffed defensively. “We have electronic harps too!” 

The ornithologist stiffled a laugh. He imagined angels dressed all black and spiky to play an _electronic harp._

“The song’s title means angel in German by the way.” He decided he’d provide comments too. Keith hummed in acknowledgement.

Lance sang the English translation of the lyric in tune with the singer when it was the time for it:

“God knows I don’t want to be an angel.” He wiggled his eyebrows as Keith scrunched his nose playfully. Lance chuckled as he changed to the next song.

“Industrial metal is a no no, then. Moving on.”

 

As song after song played from the not so high quality speakers of the laptop, Lance told Keith in which particular phases of his teenage years he was listening to the songs, which parts of the songs he loved the most, which lyrics spoke to him. And Keith was enthusiastic about it all as long as sub genres of metal didn’t play, though he found folk metal tolerable unlike the other ones. 

The angel loved softer tunes and deeper lyrics but some hits were so catchy that even the former resident of Heaven couldn’t stray away from them.

 

“To the left, to the left, everything you own in a box to the left!” Lance had sang, giggling with the angel.

 

“How can hips lie? Are human hips capable of that?” Keith had asked all confused.

 

“A guy like you should wear a warning.” Lance had sang alongside Britney, winking at the angel, earning a chuckle and a light shove on his shoulder.

 

“Why are all male singers using female pronouns as the love interest in the songs?” Keith wondered and noticed, causing the duo to talk about representation and visibility over the years. Turns out Heaven didn’t have labels at all. Angels loved whoever they loved. End of discussion.

 

“I know what you’ll just like.” Lance said as they were skimming through songs. “Florence and the Machine, baroque pop. One listen, and you’ll want their albums on your desk by monday.”

“Sounds promising.” Keith said, cuddling closer and resting his face on his warm lover’s shoulder now he had stopped dancing and sat back down. “You humans portrayed angels a lot in your art and architecture in baroque period.”

Lance hummed next to him as his eyes skimmed his music folder. “Someone studied his Earth lessons well.” He teased softly, a smile carved on his lips.

“Yeah,” Keith closed his eyes, breathing Lance in. “I really used to love Knowledge and Histroy of Other Realms 101.”

The ornithologist didn’t answer. The telltale click of him playing another song and him shifting away from the angel made Keith open his eyes.

A cozy, not so upbeat, also not mellow tune filled their ears. Some kind of wind instrument picked up the notes and swirled them around the couple. The angel smiled as Lance started singing with the soft voice of the singer.

“There are nine million bicycles in Beijing,” He reached out with one brown hand and nestled his fingers on the back of the angel’s neck, dangled in his mullet.

“That’s a fact, it’s a thing we can’t deny,” His other hand came up and brushed strands away from his angelic lover’s eyes ever so delicately.

Blue eyes swimming in affection locked onto purple, amazed ones.

“Like the fact that I will love you ‘till I die.” Lance sang softly, meaning every word.

Keith’s blush bloomed on his face like a rosebud growing. 

“I loved this song.” He whispered. Lance leaned in and kissed his nose shortly. “Right? I love it too!” He exclaimed as he went back to his previous position.

“But,” The human spoke. “There is one I used to listen to on repeat _until my head hurt._ ” He clicked onto another song as Keith blinked out of the beige tinted soft pink moment they just shared.

“I wish I had an angel for one moment of love-“ A woman sang, shortly followed by electro guitar rifts.

“Oh- quiznack, close it.” Keith whined, sitting up and reaching for the laptop. “I get it, you were obsessed with angels in high school.”

 

As snow lazily sprinkled down outside their window, Lance finally convinced Keith to give the laptop back which was heated up from being used. The angel loved and hoarded anything emitting warmth. He didn’t drink the coffee Lance poured down for him, he just held the cup of hot beverage in his hands until it got cold, then he drank it. He smiled so big when Blue nuzzled into his hand. “How soft and _warm!_ ” He latched onto Lance. Okay maybe the last one had reasons other than the human’s body warmth.

But they got under the duvets and Lance found himself laying on his side, facing the angel while holding his pale hands on the sofa bed between their bodies. Keith was also laying on his side, the small amount of wings he had left –he only had the tops of his once sweeping the floor wings- wasn’t apparent from this angle. He looked entirely human. Lance’s heart swelled all the same for him.

He loved Keith for his passion, for the way he asked about the things he didn’t understand, for the way he shielded Lance from danger even from Lance himself at times. He loved him for his soft heart beating under all the shards of glass. He never loved him for his wings or his magic.

Sure, they were cool. The wings were downright art as well as they were one of the nature’s splendid engineering works. But Keith was still Keith without them.

“Hey,” The ornithologist whispered, smiling just from being at the angel’s presence. “Can you sing me something from Heaven?”

Keith’s eyes wandered on his face before answering.

“I’m not a great singer.” He whispered back. His thumbs were caressing Lance’s knuckles in loving circles.

“I’ll love it anyway. Since you’re gonna be the one singing.” The human simply stated, blinking as Keith shyly smiled.

“I’ll sing one of our sleep songs then. Close your eyes.” He softly instructed before drawing in a long breath to turn it into a lullaby.

The ornithologist fell asleep to sounds he couldn’t find any familiarity to but couldn’t help but remember his mother’s loving hands with. Keith’s beautiful voice emberaced him in a disorientating sense of belonging.

Lance dreamt of a sunshine dripped hospital room filled with glowing dark skinned people, all smiling from the heart. He dreamt of a newborn wrapped in a soft blue towel, secure in a mother’s arms, not knowing it’s him that he’s seeing.

 

The next morning blue eyes opened sparkling, their owner unbelievably well rested. 

Keith was still sleeping, mouth agape, hands unconsciously reaching out for Lance’s fleeting warmth as he got up from the sofa bed. The human pulled the duvet the angel kicked and tossed it back on him, all snug. He flourished his actions with the softest kiss ever to Keith’s temple before making his way to get dressed, have a quick breakfast and leave for work.

 

The angel sat up, finally awake as Lance buried himself in layers of clothing.

“Mornin’ angel.” He chuckled only to get a raspy reply of:

“Don’t stay for an extra shift today. Love you.”

Then Keith plopped down to sleep more as Lance made his way out.

 

Lance tripped on the way as he ran to the door that just got knocked on.

“Oh my God I’m gonna faint from stress—HI!” He threw the door open with more force than needed.

One step away from the door stood a man looking like he was sculpted by an artist as the work of their life. He certainly wasn’t small in any sense. He was taller than both Keith and Lance. He had one of the exact same dress Keith had when he crashed down the facility, but his was dark grey. The wings behind him were even taller than him, having no chance to fit through the door. The pitch black feathers were undisturbed by any other colors unlike his short hair. 

He had a basket full of -actual- golden apples on one hand. His other hand... was made out of silver light. It was transparent in a way that Lance could see the other side even though it was very blurry. The ornithologist wondered was it the science of Heaven or was it the magic of angels that made the prosthetic.

The angel in front of the door squinted sharply when the human opened the door. He blinked several times as if he stared at the sun a bit too long while Keith stroded towards them, chuckling.

“Shiro!” He exclaimed as he took the basket of apples from him and tugged him inside. The top of Shiro’s tall wings glided through the walls effortlessly as Lance stared.

The angel had just arrived but the human was dizzy from all the magic already.

Keith and Shiro hugged once they both were inside and Lance couldn’t help but smile.

“I missed you, you idiot.” Keith snorted into his brother’s chest as Shiro’s flesh hand came up to ruffle the shorter angel’s raven hair. The scar on his face folded and wrinkled as his cheeks rode up with the genuine laughter escaping him. Still, his voice was layered with past worries when he spoke:

“You can’t call me an idiot after getting yourself exceled on the _only_ day I wasn’t there to defend you.”

Keith laughed too, light as his feathers.

“Yeah, sorry ‘bout that.” He didn’t sound sorry at all. He put one hand on Shiro’s shoulder, gently turning him towards Lance.

“Takashi, this is Lance-you probably already know but...” He chuckled awkwardly a bit. Shiro squinted again when his eyes landed on Lance. _Why is he doing that? Is something wrong with me?_ Lance had made sure to check how he looked again and again until Keith dragged him away from the mirror when he started stressing himself out aloud with his reflection.

“Lance, this is Shiro, my brother.” Keith said, finishing his sentence with a slow pat on Shiro’s arm. The older angel blinked and wiped his eyes before reaching with his silver light hand.

“Oop- Sorry, Lance. I had forgotten that your glow is pretty strong- It was like that when you were a kid too. You’re basically the sun.” He easily chuckled. Grey pupils finally properly landed on Lance’s blue ones. 

The ornithologist hesitated on his way to meet Shiro’s hand. “My... glow?” The handshake eventually happened, firm in the way both respected each other. Lance couldn’t help but notice how cold his hand was.

Shiro sent a sideways glance to Keith.

“You didn’t check his glow?”

“I did.” Keith shrugged. “Just didn’t say anything about it to him.” The younger angel chuckled as he brushed past them two and made a bee line to the kitchen to put the apples aside.

Shiro’s eyes trailed where Keith’s wings should have been if the feathers hadn’t fell down one by one. A heavy look traveled on his irises but he smiled nonetheless.

“You have a cozy place, Lance.” 

The ornithologist shrugged with a small smile on his face.

“Thanks, it’s a bit small though.”

Shiro hummed as they made their short way to the living room.

“It looks enough for one- Or,” He sat down on the navy blue sofa the angel and the human folded into a couch from a bed earlier. Keith plopped down next to him, legs curled under him. “For two.” The head of the guardian angels looked around, taking his time. 

The blue macaw flew excitedly and landed on Shiro’s head, pressing his white floof flat to his forehead. “Or, two and a half it seems.” The black winged angel chuckled, eyes looking up at where the exotic bird is.

Keith and Lance chuckled almost at the same time.

“I’ve never seen a bird like this.” Shiro spoke as he raised one hand to pet the warm, blue feathers.

“Macaws usually live in warmer climates. She’s not in her native lands.” Lance explained as he held out an arm like a long branch, calling Blue over.

“I see.” Shiro and Keith watched as the bird flew off and landed on Lance’s arm, soon to be perched on his shoulder.

“So,” Keith turned his head to his brother. “What news from Heaven?”

“Ah, you know, the Undersea Realm Festival is about to start. Everyone’s preparing for it.” The older angel shrugged a bit, his eyes drifting to where Keith’s wings should have been for a second.

Keith smiled, a mellow and nostalgic gesture. There were things he missed about Heaven. Still,

“There are festivals in Heaven for realms that we’re close with. Like Undersea Realm, Realm of Fearies and Alike...” he explained to the human sitting on a chair across them in the small living room.

The ornithologist actually spent effort to make sure he was not jumping up and down when he spoke:

“Mermaids are real?”

The angel with black wings and the angel that used to have beige ones turned to look at him in sync.

“Why are you surprised?” They both asked, a sass obviously practiced on their common enemies before. The human shrugged shyly, forcing Blue to fly away.

“Just... I love mermaids so much.” Lance murmured. The older angel cooed with a hint of laughter in his voice, much to the human’s surprise. Shiro had a presence calmer and stronger than Keith’s. 

Keith was a buzzing, thrumming threat, eyes capable of commanding silence over the room if he wished. Shiro, on the other hand, was a cold, calculated energy filling the room, he didn’t need to send a glare to cast silence over others. 

“Everything you had in your room was either ocean or space related. Mermaid dolls your sisters handed you down, seashells you collected, books about underwater creatures...” The captain of guardian angels continued, a warmth on his voice as he remembered eight years old Lance.

“Really?” Keith catched on, an elbow on the highest part of the couch, face adjusted on the hand of the previously mentioned arm. He looked like he was watching his crush from somewhere hidden. “Awww,” He cooed too, laughing as blue blue eyes watched him.

Keith was also a fierce excitement, making the person close to him feel _gratitude_ because they were chosen to see the hidden parts of the angel. Shiro had this subtle contentment as he sat down with his brother and his brother’s lover. Of course he knew even though Keith didn’t really stated anything. He had eyes.

If Keith had walls up, Shiro had a maze set up. And even from the total ten minutes they shared together Lance could tell the older angel was really clever. He had a certain spark in his grey eyes.

“Stop laughing,” Shiro slapped the hand Keith rested his head on away slightly, causing the mullet to lose balance. “We all know I’m here to tell Lance your embarassing stories.”

 

Their shadows danced ever so slowly, falling on different places of the room as hours went on.

 

Lance had felt this lucky twice in his life before. First, when he and his family sticked together, their hearts sewn together with the never ending absence and grief of being one McClain short, huddled close against all odds and making it to his brother’s graduation.

Second, when Hunk and Pidge gave him that soft looks, asking “Were you really scared we’d distance ourselves from you?” in such voice tones as if the thought of it alone was ridiculous after he very nervously came out to them, still in their high school years, all awkward limbs and an insecure search for one’s self.

Now, sitting across the two angels, chatting with them with cups of teas in their hands, learning about Heaven, learning about Keith, being invited into their lives further with each laughter and smile, Lance felt the scorching surge of gratitude and affection wash the insides of his chest.

 

Many stories were shared over the time, Lance listened to every single one with the same enthusiasm.

 

“One time Shiro spelled my hair the _ugliest_ yellow he could muster.” Keith had spoken with a fire. “Then I shaved one side of his hair when he was asleep.”

 

“Mom and dad lied and told me we were going to the animal shelter to get a kitten when we went to pick up Keith from the orphanage. I was really disappointed.” Shiro had said, making Lance erupt into a breathless laughter as Keith looked offended. “He didn’t talk for days. I was thirteen-- I had elementary school stuff to do! But it was all worth it when one night before sleeping he whispered ‘Mname’s Keef’ in the dark as if I didn’t know my brother’s name.” Shiro had continued in the softest voice Lance heard from him, ruffling a hand in Keith’s hair as said brother also had looked like an emotional mess. Lance’s turn to coo had came.

 

“Lance, Lance,” Shiro had snorted with memories in his mind as Keith had protested, seemingly read his brother’s mind: “No, Takashi, don’t tell that one!” The captain of the guardian angels hadn’t listened to Keef. He had told _that one._

“One time mom and dad were away on business and I had brought my first girlfriend over but didn’t feel the need to inform Keith.” The strong angel had shaken with laughter as Keith had put tomatoes to shame with the blush on his face. “So-“ More laughter from Shiro. “So twelve years old Keith arrives home with backpack dangling from one shoulder and a water gun on the other hand- looks at my girlfriend briefly,” The black winged angel had doubled with laughter then as Keith had started muttering “What was I thinking?” over and over. “Looks at her for a second and spats, with the most utterly disgusted face anyone can ever have, ‘Ugh. A girl.’ and this alone scares her away.” Shiro had completed his story, then added in the most flat tone ever: “She broke up with me two days after that.”

 

“This perfectionist idiot didn’t sleep for a week once. He nearly spelled the whole kitchen ablaze when he was too tired to control his magic.” Keith had said, voice still accusatory over something that had happen years ago.

 

Lance learnt many things about Heaven and angels too.

 

“Do you touch Keith’s wings, Lance?” Shiro had asked, smirk evident both in his voice and on his face. “You should, as his partner. It is a gesture only close ones do to angels.”

 

“Angels grow up quickly, reaching adulthood. But our adulthood is the longest periods of our lives. Usually angels live until their two hundred and something-ish years, being an adult until one hundred and eighties.” Keith had explained. “So Shiro is thirty three in human years, making him nine Earth years older than you. But he wasn’t seventeen Earth years old when you were eight. He was already an adult when he was your father’s guardian angel.”

 

“Fun fact: Some angels are allergic to gold. It makes their life so hard.” Shiro sighed.

 

As low lights of evening draped itself over windows, Shiro said he probably should leave.

“You know,” The tall angel started once he was up on his feet. “Humans are brave.” Shiro put one elbow on Keith’s shoulder, leaning on the shortest amongst them casually, and turned his eyes towards Lance. 

“You don’t have wings but you let yourselves to the most dangerous of falls: you fall in love. And you don’t have magic to reverse your mistakes but you keep on embracing every passing moment.” The older angel spoke softly, a smile on his face. He reached out one hand to the human and pulled the ornithologist in a small hug when he held the extended hand.

“If you hurt Keith you’ll have a handful of angry angels coming to kick your ass, lead by me.” Shiro whispered as the hug hid his face. Lance knew the staged like a joke warning meant. _You passed my tests. Don’t fuck up._

Keith scoffed as Lance and Shiro laughed softly. 

“Don’t worry. I wouldn’t try such things when he is this skilled with knives.” The ornithologist said in a light tone when they parted. Shiro’s smile grew for a second before turning to Keith.

They hugged without a word. Shiro brushed his hands over what’s left of Keith’s wings ever so slightly. 

“I support you and trust you. If things go wrong _or..._ Even if they go perfectly, you’ll always have me by your side.” The taller angel stated, so sure of his promise and ruffled mullet’s bangs for the last time.

“I know.” Keith answered and shoved his brother by the face playfully. 

“I will miss you.” The captain of guardian angels said as he took a step back, towards the door.

“I will miss you too.” Keith spoke. Shiro smiled bitterly as Lance acted like he didn’t see the tears welling up on violet eyes for the sake of the moment.

 

They both slept in the next day as it was a saturday.

Eventually, limbs escaped from the warmth they’ve established under the duvet. An arm was thrown on the covers, legs popped out later on, then whole bodies rolled off the sofa bed they’ve opened again. Eventually, they got up.

They ate a lazy breakfast and dragged it on as much as they could. Something felt different. Some gaps felt like they were filled with a bittersweet, numbing warmth. Both of them were anticipating something they didn’t know of.

 

Keith got up, his halo was hovering above his head. He liked to wear the golden, graceful band over his head when they were in the house. He willed it to shrink into a bracelet when they were getting ready to sleep. Lance watched as his lover put away his empty cup in the dishwasher, sunshine painting him ethereal even while doing such a mundane task. For a second he thought of his birds, thought of Blue, thought of how in one aspect, Keith had something in common with them: He loved all of them dearly. But he kept them away from their homes.

He knew his face was twisting in a frown as Keith came closer to his taller frame which was leaning his long legs and butt over the kitchen counter. The angel slipped into the human’s embrace quickly—the need to be close a familiar instinct by now.

“Ow!” Keith yelped as his halo abruptly fell down on top of his head. “What the...” He muttered as he picked up the halo and started inspecting it. Surely something was wrong with it—his halo had never, ever, even when he was first getting used to it in adolesence, fell on his head.

Lance’s perfectly shaped eyebrows furrowed as he took the halo gently from Keith’s smaller, pale hand. Maybe it was because how the golden circle looked under the sunshine or maybe he wanted to touch the magical object, he didn’t know. Keith had one hand resting on top of his head where the halo dropped. Gears started to shift in his head slowly and he bent a bit back, only to see the remaining feathers rapidly falling, piling on the floor behind his feet.

“Keith?” Lance’s dazzled voice broke the silence. He had a question mark masked in the way he called out his name and a tiny exclamation point as he too, slowly realized what was happening.

The angel, or the former angel it seems, turned his head back to the human in front of him. Lance was watching as the halo shrinking silently in his palms. 

“Maybe they’ll let me keep it as a bracelet.” Keith thought aloud. That seemed possible.

But the halo didn’t stop getting smaller and smaller once it was in the size of a bracelet.

Lance noticed the pile of discarded feathers then. Quickly pushing himself off the counter he was leaning on, he took a sideways step to look at Keith’s back.

“They’re all gone.” The ornithologist whispered. His voice was cracking and impossible to read.

“Lance,” Keith cleared his throat. Feeling the heavy lump he was trying to fight away since yesterday making its place known in his throat. Shiro’s visit was calculated. It was a goodbye and a good luck since Keith was staring a new life. He knew that Shiro was also sent as an inspector by the Ministry of Other Realms. It was probably Allura and Coran who asked if Shiro could do this task.

Keith cleared his throat again. It was worth it.

“Lance. It’s okay. This is what supposed to happen.” They both knew his wings were dissolving into the past with every fallen feather. So why the both of them were emotional about this?

Lance didn’t look up though. He was watching as the halo shrinked and shrinked then suddenly doubled in his palm.

“Lance?” 

The soft feathers at his feet swayed away with the motion as Lance pushed Keith a couple of steps back gently.

“Lance... What are you...” Keith murmured.

Two little, simple bands of gold was glinting in Lance’s palm as he sunk down to one knee.

Two rings were nestled in Lance’s palm as the ornithologist finally looked up with ocean eyes wet, living up to their name.

“Keith, will you marry me?” Lance whispered.

His voice was laced with every moment they shared together from Keith’s fall to this day. The trembling gasp escaping from the ang- from Keith’s lips reached how soft his eyes looked as the sun shined a little brighter into their flat. He looked perfect. With loose pajama bottoms and a backless, old t-shirt, with feathers at his bare feet. He was perfect in Lance’s eyes.

“You fell into an orbit around me delibaretly, then made me and every other thing in my life spin around you _gladly..._ Let me wake up to you every day.” The ornithologist whispered again. 

Crouched on one knee in a hideous old shirt and sweatpants, a smile so bright the sun should take notes on his face and every hope he has evident on his eyes Lance looked perfect. Perfect in Keith’s eyes.

The shorter male extended one trembling hand towards the ornithologist so that he can slip the ring on. 

“Yes.” He laughed wetly and wiped away his own tears. “Yes, of quiznacking course I’ll marry you.” 

Lance clumsily slipped the ring on the pale finger and started peppering each knucle with kisses as Keith laughed—a brilliant, vibrant voice, a heart beat their hearts beat at the same time.

The former angel plopped down to his knees too, seeing that Lance had no intentions to get up.

“Give me the other ring, this is a two sided thing.” Keith spoke so softly. Lance laughed as he handed the now warm metal to Kei—to his fiancé.

“Sorry, sorry, I got carried away.” The taller male giggled, not sorry at all.

Finally when Keith slipped the other one of the pair on Lance’s finger they looked at their hand silently at the same time. Then they started laughing.

“Oh my God?” Lance offered between laughs as if it meant anything coherent.

“This is really happening.” Keith exclaimed as if Lance had no idea. “This. Is. Actually. Happening.”

“I know!” Lance leant in and kissed his fiancé, still giggling.

Keith kissed his fiancé back, not caring they were sitting on cold, hard, uncomfortable tiles on the kitchen floor.

 

They sat like that until Lance declared that he couldn’ feel his legs curled beneath himself. Keith got up with the happiest sigh he let out in his life, lending a hand and hoisting the taller male up, not letting his hand go as he watched the gold glint against Lance’s tan skin.

“What are those?” Lance asked when he was up. He walked over to the pile of... things that weren’t on the kitchen counter before.

Keith followed him, curiosity momentarily keeping him from thinking about Lance.

The pile of papers were made of report cards from the steps of education he should have had if he lived on Earth. There was an ID too. A human ID like Lance’s. Two passports were nestled in the bundle, on so that he can travel with Lance on Earth and one golden and white one so that he can visit heaven with an angel accompanying him. There was a degree on biology and a CV prepared exactly for the facility Lance worked in. 

The ornithologist whistled.

“They’ve sent everything! All the legal evidence that you existed on Earth all your life even though... you didn’t.” Keith smiled. Of course Heaven would get these covered. They were the ones who sent him here in the first place.

“There’s a phone too--and a framed picture.” Keith said as he reached for the phone to check its contacts. Only five were added just like he thought. Shiro, their mom and dad, Allura and Coran. Lance was checking the pile of legal papers, eyes lingering on the CV.

“So,” He said, shooting up a sparkling look. “You’re going to be my intern. I won’t go easy on you in work, don’t get any ideas.” 

Keith rolled his eyes as he peeked over to look at the CV prepared for him too. The idea of learning the profession from Lance and taking care of birds was good but he thought he could do something different later in his years to come on Earth. Something including sports.

“No driving license though. Guess everyone knows that gays can’t drive.” Lance muttered, thinking to himself aloud rather than talking to Keith.

“Shut up. I used to be a functional gay, it’s your fault that i’m a disaster gay now.” Keith shoved Lance slightly on his shoulder, reaching fort he framed photo.

There were four angels in the picture. Keith was crushed in a group hug by Shiro, a dark skinned, silver haired female angel with silver dual toned wings—just like a galapagos petrel’s—and a ginger, older male angel with colorful wings like a parrot’s, all red with hues of yellow and green and blue.

They all were smiling, gold was smeared across their hair, their wings, their clothes.

“Ah, I remember that day. It unexpectedly rained when we were out for Fearies Festival.” Keith said with a smile on his face and in his voice.

“You all look so happy.” Lance stated, sneaking his arms around Keith’s waist and looking at the Picture from over his shoulder.

“Yeah.” Keith whispered, fingers delicately caressing over the frame’s cold glass. But he had a passport. Shiro would pick him up and they would visit Heaven. He was allowed to see his loved ones.

Lance left a small kiss on the crook of Keith’s neck as he backed away. “Should we--?” He started.

“Pick Pidge and Hunk up and head out to celebrate?” Keith finished for him, gazing over his shoulder at him gorgeous fiance.

“Yeah.” Lance breathed out with a giddy smile. “Let me find my car keys.”

“Okay, I can change into some of your clothes, right?” Keith asked as Lance strayed away.

They weren’t puzzle pieces that fell perfectly together. They weren’t the absolute cures to every struggle and scar they bared. Lance wasn’t what Keith thought would decorate his future. Keith wasn’t what Lance thought he’d find in his facility that day. And nothing ever was certain. But they got each other.

Because Keith fell. And Lance caught him.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> so, this is how my first chaptered work ends. again, thank you so much for going on this journey with me. it is time i move on to new adventures with new characters-- you can find me on twitter @livennadin
> 
> the songs mentioned, in order:  
> \- Engel, Rammstein  
> \- Irreplaceable, Beyonce  
> \- Hips Don't Lie, Shakira  
> \- Toxic, Britney Spears  
> \- Nine Million Bicycles, Katie Melua (pls give this a listen it's so cute)  
> \- Wish I Had An Angel, Nightwish


	8. Epilogue

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> looks like I couldn't let the angel and ornithologist go this easily

Summer breeze invited itself into the flat, picking up the curtain then dropping it without a care. Birds chirped outside, birds chirped inside. Boxes decorated the floor in random corners across the small house.

Red, the parrot with mostly red and blue and yellow and green feathers whistled as he bobbed his head up and down in a way only birds can do. Blue, the blue macaw that was perched on the huge cage next to Red blinked as she watched the humans moving around. The melody of a two low and one high, long note came before the sight of the man. 

He had whistled an angel name from heaven and the taller male came strolling into the living room with an empty box in his hands. “Alright, alright!” The mid day sun splashed him in golden, his chocolate strands, his brown skin—all glowed golden. 

“What are we putting in this box?” Lance asked as he plopped down in front of his fiance who were sorting the boxes on the ground.

The stark difference between the shorter male’s black hair and pale skin was reduced by the intensity of the sunlight getting in. His purple eyes sparkled violet when he looked up.

“The books?” Keith suggested before scribbling “photo albums” on the lid of a box with a black sharpie. The last thing he put in that box was the feather Lance framed. It was small enough to lie and say it was a bird’s and it was meaning enough to coax bittersweet smiles out of the couple.

Getting used to being human was a rocky road for Keith. Earth and earthlings were unfair and sometimes nonsense—but Heaven wasn’t guaranteed purpose and equality either. There were far less gold on Earth and nearly nothing floated like it did in Heaven. But it was okay, Keith found gold in Lance’s eyes as they shone under sun and he got the floating sensation when the world singled down to him, Lance and their birds.

Still Lance assured him he didn’t have to “become human” because he was an angel still, and would always be one.

 

There were simple pleasures on Earth too. Ever since Keith was able to get out of the house he found out getting a new book made him all happy and cozy inside. He got to curl up next to his lover and read what he bought later in the day, after all. Somewhere along the way it became his tradition, just like the one he had in Heaven where he got tea with honey and sipped it as he gently flew over white marbled streets.

 

“Okay.” Lance mumbled, with the intention of getting up and making his way to the bookcase, yet he abruptly stopped when the sun shined just a little bit more into their home, creating a barely there illusion of a halo above Keith’s head.

Keith’s eyes shot up from the box he was duct taping shut:

“What?” he softly asked, a smirk on his face and in his voice.

Lance shook his head while breathing out his answer in sincerity.

“You’re gorgeous.”

The angelic man-- _his fiance_ snorted shortly.

“Flattery can’t save you from packing stuff. We’re moving out in a week, Lance.” Keith bit his lower lip to suppress giggles and hung his head low so that Lance wouldn’t see. He got to say _we!_ He got to say _we’re moving out_ as he was talking about the man he loved, about the man that loved him back with all his might. The Keith from a year ago would never believe if someone told him these days would come. 

Then again, the Keith from a year ago would laugh if you told him he’d give up his wings.

“I swear you still look like you have your halo sometimes.” Lance murmured once again when he was on his feet, proceeding towards the shelves overflowing with books. 

 

There were moments, fleeting and otherworldly, moments where Lance would look at Keith to see a graffiti of a halo drawn on a wall all the way behind him looked like it was actually hovering over his fiancé's head. Moments where they were out on dates while Keith sat across him as they held hands over the table and his shadow behind him would have a shadow halo droning over his head as if it was actually there and casting the shadow. There were moments when light broke down on Keith, illuminating the ghost of the majestic wings Keith had when they first met. 

There were moments Lance swore he saw the love of his life’s wings as the shorter male stretched after waking up, his back to Lance. There were moments Lance insisted he felt the brush of Keith’s wings on his back and on his arms as they kissed and sealed their lips over and over on each other’s in silent promises to stay. Sometimes, the leaves of the trees behind Keith looked like wings when they were out walking. A few times an owl flew behind Keith in the facility, the perspective making it look like his wings were back for a moment.

Keith was and have always been ethereal. At least that’s what Lance thought. At least that’s what Lance confessed to his fiancé every chance he could get.

When he woke up with drool trailing down his chin, when he was too unmotivated to even get up, when he missed his brother and was grumpy, he was ethereal.

 

“Well, I still have my halo.” Keith said without looking up. “It’s just around my finger. As a ring.” The sound of duct tape being opened and sticked onto a box filled the living room again. Keith heard Lance chuckle ever so slightly as he saw his fiancé picking up books and placing them neatly into the box from the corner of his eyes.

 

 

Lance was still and always have been a constant warmth for Keith. He was still the stupidly trusting man that gave an exiled angel shelter. He was still the generous heart that tore himself apart for the cause he believed in, for his birds, for his family, friends. He was the one to pull Keith into a hug that time when Keith had left working in the facility and they were struggling financially that month, telling him they’d figure something out. He was the one to celebrate with Keith when he got the job at that club to teach fencing lessons. “Of course they would hire you babe! You’re the best with swords!” He was the one beside Keith in every step: as he made human friends, as he dragged him from museum to museum, as he finally got a popular culture reference he hadn’t understand.

Lance was the one to spread himself too thin sometimes, Lance was the one who let Keith see parts of him no one else did. Lance was so _real_ that it made Keith dizzy from time to time.

The size of the house didn’t matter for Keith. He knew for a fact that they always gravitated towards each other, even when they argued, even when walls felt like closing on them, even when they were simply too tired.

 

Keith smiled as two bare, tan arms poking out of the short sleeve t-shirt, blame the summer heat, made their way around his waist. He had finished taping the boxes closed and Lance had just finished packing the books.

“Baby,” Lance muttered before planting a soft kiss to Keith’s neck. The latter hummed, closing his eyes for a second. “If you're finished with the boxes you can pack yourself in that.” Lance continued, barely holding his laughter. 

Keith opened his eyes to see that Lance was, in fact, pointing to the trashcan standing in the hallway. Despite all his attempts, he heard himself snorting as the wall of warmth behind him vibrated with laughter. “I’ll be arriving at our place in a limousine.” Lance said between giggles.

Keith turned between Lance’s arms, flicking his forehead lightly, “As if you have the money for that.” He answered back.

Lance raised an eyebrow, smiling from ear to ear.

“ _You?_ When did it become _only me?_ It’s _us_ from now on.”

Keith heard himself gasp as his mind chanted: Us. We. Together. Always.

He leant forward, closing the slim gap between them and dragged Lance down to a kiss—which the taller male obliged very gladly—simply because he can. Simply because they were in love.

“I thought about what you said earlier.” Keith whispered when they parted. “I agree: A summer wedding would be perfect.”

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> hello, thank you so much for reading, for sticking around. please, please know that i appreciate every comment made and every kudos left on this work. i admit that i failed at replying to all of the comments, i'm sorry, but every single one of them made me smile, made my days even! thank you.

**Author's Note:**

> thank you so much for reading! i love this au so much! i'll probably keep on drawing it in addition to writing! there is more to come :')
> 
> if you want to talk about blue and red dorks in love, i'm also @aakaaashi on twitter
> 
> feedbacks are so so welcome btw :3


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